Adrian Mole
| Adrian Albert Mole | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | 1982 |
| Created by | Sue Townsend |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Nigel Mole |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Writer, TV chef, bookshop employee |
| Family |
George Mole (father) Pauline Mole (née Sugden) (mother) Rosie Germaine Mole (half-sister) Brett Slater (half-brother) |
| Spouse(s) | JoJo Daisy Flowers |
| Children | Glenn Bott-Mole (by Sharon Bott) William (Wole) Mole (by JoJo) Gracie Mole (by Daisy) |
| Relatives | Albert Mole (grandfather) Edna May Mole (grandmother) Susan Mole (aunt) Mr Sugden (grandfather) Mrs Sugden (grandmother) Pete Sugden (uncle) Unnamed grandchild |
| Religion | Church of England, later atheist |
| Nationality | British |
Adrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared (as Nigel) in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence. The first two books appealed to many readers as a realistic and humorous treatment of the inner life of an adolescent boy. They also captured something of the zeitgeist of the UK during the Thatcher period.
The series has many themes. The first books concentrate on Adrian's desires and ambitions in life (to marry his teenage sweetheart, publish his poetry and novels, obtain financial security) and his complete failure to achieve them. The series satirises human pretensions, and especially, in the first couple of volumes, teenage pretensions.
The second theme is depiction of the social and political situation in Britain, with particular reference to left-wing politics in the 1980s in the first three books. For example, Mr and Mrs Mole's divorce reflects rising divorce rates in the 1980s, and living together unmarried was becoming a norm. Adrian's mother becomes a staunch feminist and briefly joins the Greenham Common campaigners. Pandora, Adrian's love interest, and her parents are part of an intellectualised and left-wing middle class that attempted to embrace the working class.
Humour arises from the outworking of larger social forces within a very ordinary household in a very ordinary part of Middle England.
The last three books move in slightly new directions, showing Adrian as an adult in different environments. They are more focused on political satire, mainly examining New Labour, and in Weapons of Mass Destruction, the Iraq war. The intervening book, Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years, mixes these themes, with events such as the Gulf War seen from Adrian's naive and frustrated point of view, as well as depictions of his experiences of unemployment and public spending cutbacks, both major political issues at the time. In dealing with political events, a constant plot device is that Adrian makes confident predictions and statements that are known to be wrong by the reader, ranging from belief in the Hitler Diaries to an Iraqi victory in the Gulf War and Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction.
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