OUGD406 - Studio Brief 01 - Study Task 01 - Book Analysis

"Adrian Mole’s painfully honest diary is a hilarious spots-and-all glimpse into the troubled life of a teenager. First published in 1982, it quickly became a best-seller and has since been adapted for radio, television and theatre."


"Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Telling us candidly about his parents' marital troubles, The Dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual'"

- Set in 1981-1982

- Historic world events of time: Falklands War, Prince Charles & Diana wedding, Prince William born

- Mole = fierce critic of Margaret Thatcher - worst enemy

- Naively yet confidently misinterprets events around him

- Genre = young adult novel - 12-mid teens - younger kids do not understand

- Mole - unfortunate, unabashed (not embarrassed)

- Craze swept through schools - eventually banned in one school

- Mole - ABBA fan - wore flares in early 1980s. Obsess over penis size. Porn mag - Big & Bouncy

- Book released three days after The Smith's first gig - "zero hour of selfish 80s angst"

- Sue Townsend author - "Not written for teens. Parents = intended audience. Mothers of teenage boys"

- Mole = loveable and exasperating - defining emotions of parenthood

- Mole - on/off girlfriend - Pandora

- Midlands sense of humour

- Obvious reading book back as 40 year old

- Mole = self obsessed, hypochondriac

- Repainted bedroom - Noddy wallpaper showing through

- Book = slight whiff of forbidden, racy stuff for time - sexuality and boys that age

- "solitary voice of sanity in world gone mad"