True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend [Hardcover]

Sue Townsend (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 1989

The brand new edition of the hilarious third book in the Adrian Mole series, Sue Townsend's The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole.Monday June 13th.I had a good, proper look at myself in the mirror tonight. I've always wanted to look clever, but at the age of twenty years and three months I have to admit that I look like a person who has never even heard of Jung or Updike.Adrian Mole is an adult. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life, Pandora, has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he expected. Still, without the slings and arrows of modern life what else would an intellectual poet have to write about . . .Included here are two other less well-known diarists: Sue Townsend and Margaret Hilda Roberts, a rather ambitious grocer's daughter from Grantham.'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday TimesSue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Since the publication of The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4 in 1982, she has made us weep with laughter and pricked the nation's conscience. Seven further volumes of diaries have followed: The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years, Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years, The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years. All have been acclaimed bestsellers, some have been adapted for radio and TV, starring Lulu, Julie Walters and Stephen Mangan, among others. She has also written six other popular novels (The Queen and I, Queen Camilla, Number Ten, Rebuilding Coventry, Ghost Children and The Woman Who Went to Bed for A Year) and penned many well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The funniest book of the year --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Sue Townsend became Britain's bestselling author of the 1980s with her books THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE AGED 13 3/4 and THE GROWING PAINS OF ADRIAN MOLE. She is the author of seven other novels, including THE QUEEN AND I and GHOST CHILDREN, andmost recently her collected journalism, THE PUBLIC CONFESSIONS OF A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN (AGED 55 3/4), was published in 2001. She is also well known as a playwright, and lives in Leicester. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Methuen, London (August 31, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0413624501
• ISBN-13: 978-0413624505
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,269,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great series., January 23, 2008

By 

Paul Thomas "mynameispaulie" (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend (Paperback)

Firstly I wanted to clarify for people that might want to know, exactly how this series runs. I have bought and read all the books in the Adrian Mole series and I was dissappointed not to find anywhere to tell me which ones to get. So as a result I have them all.

US Versions
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
Adrian Mole: The Lost Years
Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction

British Versions
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole
Adrian Mole: From Minor To Major
Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years
Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction


So, as for the review these books are great. I love the entire series and I just couldn't stop reading them all the way to the end. The one thing I might suggest is to keep in mind that with most series of books the first is always the best, which is probably the case here too, but if you like it and are a fan of Adrian Mole, there is no reason why you wouldn't want to read the rest.

I like the fact that is it written in diary form for easy reading and it is very clever how the story is told from the point of view of Adrian himself but you can see things about his life that he cannot.

Overall an excellent read for all ages from teen to adult.

4.0 out of 5 stars An Unusual Entry in the Series, August 30, 2009

By 

Graceann Macleod "Books Fuel My Life" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend (Hardcover)

I had the feeling, as I settled in to reading True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, that Sue Townsend had a number of ideas for sequences, but none of them quite fit into a full-length novel. Thus this entry. That's not a complaint, but the book is not entirely Adrian, and Adrian's sequences skip spaces of time.

The book starts just about where the second one left off, and then segues into essays set up as radio broadcasts, permeated with Adrian's trademark self-delusion. Then Sue Townsend offers several pieces based on her own life, the most amusing being about her love of England. The final segment consists of a "newly-discovered" set of diary pages from one Margaret Hilda Roberts. The conceit is that they are undated, but are suspected to be from the early years of WWII. This is the weakest portion of the book, because Margaret is tremendously unlikeable and the writing lacks the humor that infuses Adrian's sequences.

4.0 out of 5 stars More Mole Required, November 29, 2008

By 

Craobh Rua "Craobh Rua" (N. Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend (Paperback)

The Mole section takes up the bulk of the book and covers a five-year period. It begins in December 1984, when he's 16years old and is studying for his A-Levels. (He's obviously been reasonably successful in his O-Levels and CSEs, then). However, it's a little different in style to the 'The Secret Diary' and 'The Growing Pains' - it's only partly written in diary format, and it also includes a spot of poetry, his talks given on radio and a couple of letters between Adrian and Barry Kent. (Barry is, for a spell, residing at Her Majesty's Pleasure and has now learnt how to read and write. He's now writing some poetry and - unlike the crap Adrian produces - it's actually quite promising. He's even known as Baz the Skinhead Poet in certain circles). Adrian is also still corresponding with his American penpal, Hamish Mancini - at one point, he has ask Hamish for the return of his diaries. While the book sees some big changes in Adrian 's life, some things have remain constant : he still enjoys reading 'The Beano', is still obsessed with the Norwegian Leather Industry and his love for Pandora Braithwaite. (Pandora, on the other hand, is possibly starting to catch herself about Adrian . Where Adrian deludes himself that he's an intellectual, Pandora is academically gifted...so, the pair's post A-Level life might just prove a little strained).

The Sue Townsend and Margaret Roberts sections are much shorter than the Mole section - though the Sue Townsend section follows a similar format to what has come before. There's a diary from a two week holiday in Majorca, a brief report covering a trip to Russia with a group of other writers and a couple of pages on why she likes England. The Margaret Roberts slot, on the other hand, follows the 'traditional' Mole diary format. (While nothing is officially known of what happened to Ms Roberts, it can only be a coincidence that Margaret Thatcher's maiden name was Roberts). Our heroine is obscenely hard working at school and - like her father, a hard working grocer - she frowns upon socialists. (She particularly despises two disgusting working-class oiks called Ginger Shinnock and Roy Batterfree). She doesn't have many friends - only, really, a renegade boyfriend called Cecil Parkhurst - and she frowns upon Edwina Slurry, her main rival at school. (She also has some trouble with a horrible, working class cyclist with shifty eyes called Tebbit). While a fortune teller claims Margaret is going to be most powerful woman in the land, there is also trouble ahead.

I've slightly mixed feelings about this book...more from Adrian Mole is always a good thing, but somehow cramming five years into half a book seems a bit of a waste. I also would have preferred another Adrian Mole diary - the change in style didn't really work so well for me. (The Margaret Roberts diary, on the other hand, I did enjoy a great deal). Strangely, it was Townsend's own section I liked the least, although I'm not entirely sure why...Recommended overall, but not in the same league as the first two Mole books.