A compelling book, slightly wordy. Overall worth the time it takes to read, and deserves praise from anyone willing to read it!

A truly entertaining chronicle of a english teenage boy. I read it growing up and it remains a favorite to this day. I even watched to British television show they made out of it. Highly enjoyable.

This is actually the diary of Adrian Mole, an awkward teenager, who lived the life of a normal teenager. He had a crush on a pretty girl, hated his dog sometimes, had parents who squabble now and then... The diary was written from the view of Adrian Mole. You could see that the writing style change as he grew and matured. I really admired how Sue Townsend can see things from the view of a young boy and a young man. Nice work! Pretty funny too!

This is the first book I read from cover to cver without being forced to by some teacher or other adult... interestingly enough I got it a week ago at Indigo (this may be a canadian chain... but I pretty sure they own Chapters so I'd assume they'd have it as well)anyway... this intrigues me that no one has been able to find it...

I love adrien mole and all of sue townsends books. The worst thing happened to me last year. My little sis kept going on at me about how she needed a complete verson of the adrien mole booksand after a long hard time of thinking I made the biggest mistake of my life . I had every book of adrien mole. (except the wilderness years) My sis came back to me 2 days later and said she had lost it . I have really wanted to get my book back but it doesn't seemed to have been returned to me. I can't seem to get Adrien mole minor to major any where. I am askin my mum to buy me the other books off the web. If any 1 knows where to get Adrien mole minor to major please e-mail me. Thanx!!!!!!!

I must first congratulate Sue Townsend on her remarkable acheivements with young Adrian Albert Mole. I have read The Secret Diary and The Growing Pains about 4 times each, but I never get tired or bored of it.

Adrian is starts off as a 13 year old Intellectual, living in a house with his pathetic parents and his companion(the dog!) He has much to say about World Politics and Communism, and has a bitter-sweet imagination. As an Intellectual, he finds it difficult to live in a home where he is not noticed, and in a world where people kill themselves, and corruption ruled the world!

He also has a thirst for Great English Literature, and he never turns away from it. After reading many Classic books: "Animal Farm, Wuthering Heights, etc" he decides that Poetry and novels is what he wants! He wants to become a poet, and submits numerous poems to the BBC, but they fail to get published, but young Mole is a fighter, and he never gives up!

He lives life quite the same, until the treacle-haired love of his life turns up( Pandora Braithwaite). She is smart, gorgeous, and hilariously funny, as stated by A.Mole. But, as he grows older into maturity, he discovers that things will change, and turn very bitter and sweet. But, Mole will always turn out triumphant in the end!

A must read!

If Charles Shultz's saying "Happiness isn't funny" is true, then this book by definition qualifies as hilarious. Adrian Mole isn't just a teenager with typical adolescent angst; he's smack dab in the middle of Thatcher's Britain, on the wrong side of the tracks.

His parents are on the skids, he has neither dress sense, social grace, looks, intelligence, nor wit, but believes himself to be intellectual and artistically gifted.

Menaced and robbed by skinheads at school on a daily basis, pining for a middle-class girl on the fast-track to the upper class he'd so desperately want to join... he is the absolute metaphor for a latter 20th century England that is no longer on the cutting edge of anything, and, like a teenager realising subconsciously he has no future, dealing with the reality that it will never live up to its past glory or future expectations.

Savagely skewering the class system, granola-crunching intellectuals, adolescence, Thatcherism, and life in the Midlands, Sue Townsend has executed a real stroke of brilliance in making Mole so clueless. As the moron he is, he cannot filter nor embellish the truth that goes on around him, but reports it through his own naive eyes. This lets us see, for example, that his best friend is less than sane with a serious identity crisis, without the psychobabble.

These are dark, brutal books and could easily be rewritten as black tragedies... much of the humor comes from a sense of "Dei gratia sum quod sum." Yet they are funnier still for being so. If you are British or British-ex-pat or in a British-inspired country like Canada or Australia, you WILL see people you know in these characters.

This really is essential reading.

Adrian Mole is a tremendoulsy funny book by Sue Townsend. It tells of Adrian's life with unusual parents, an insane dog, a worrying grandmother, an excentrick old man and his dog, the school bully, a girl who won't notice him and a betraying best friend. It is set in the eighties and contains a few years of his life. Adrian Mole is fond of poetry and world peace.
This is one of the best books ever! You have to read the whole Series! I don't know anyone who hasn't enjoyed it!

Sue Townsend takes on a morbid subject with style. Christopher is a sad character, but has a new beginning with Angela. To read of a reunited couple after so many years was a joy, even if they were brought together under morbid circumstances. Sue made me hate Crackle and feel deeply sorry for Tamara. I just wanted to take Storme in my arms and protect her from her parents. I am so glad I found this book in Amsterdam. I am not sure where the relationship to the Adrian Mole series comes from...could not be more different characters. Regardless, another delightful read from Sue Townsend!

I acquired the above book from my local bookshop, thinking that as it had been writen by Sue Townsend, it would be an extremly humourous tale. It is not a comedy - very much an entralling drama. It is a shocking book, at times one has to stop, put the book down and run over the events in your mind in order to grasp the overall picture. The characters are so real - i think that this is what makes this book so great. This book identifies abortion as what it truely is - and double-edged sword.

The Queen and I is a lovely story by Sue Townsend. The book gives a very nice and detailed image of the characters and the places.
What is going on in the UK? The royal family definitely doesn't seem to be who they were before their change of lifestyle. And you will find out things about Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Queen you would have never thought of.
Sue Townsend criticises four social aspects in the book like the differents between the poor and rich people, which is an obvious aspect. Also the educational gap between the poor and rich comes clear in the book, you can notice it in the use of language, and the schools in Hell's close haven't got enough teachers, books and pencils and the roof is about to collaps. But wait till you get to the end of the book...you will be surprised!

The Queen and I is a lovely story by Sue Townsend. The book gives a very nice and detailed image of the characters and the places.
What is going on in the UK? The royal family definitely doesn't seem to be who they were before their change of lifestyle. And you will find out things about Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Queen you would have never thought of.
Sue Townsend criticises four social aspects in the book like the differents between the poor and rich people, which is an obvious aspect. Also the educational gap between the poor and rich comes clear in the book, you can notice it in the use of language, and the schools in Hell's close haven't got enough teachers, books and pencils and the roof is about to collaps. But wait till you get to the end of the book...you will be surprised!

Review

Titel: The Queen and I
Author: Sue Townsend
Publisher: Arrow Books Limited

Review:
A Republican government wins the election in 1992, and overnight the Royal family is relieved of its duties and is forced to live on a council estate in the Midlands.
Each of the members of the royal family copes with the new situation in a different way,
The Queen tries to make the most of the situation, prince Philip can't cope at all, he refuses to get out of bed, wash himself or eat and ends up in a mental hospital. Prince Charles gets arrested for an argument with a police constable.
Meanwhile Jack Barker, the new Prime Minister brings the country to bankruptcy and England is annexated by Japan.
Luckily the queen wakes up to discover that it was all just a bad dream.

Comment on the book:
This book has been a joy to read. It is funny, witty and it kept me wanting to read more until the last page. The story is brilliantly written and while reading it I saw the described situations very vividly in my mind. I can see why 'The Queen and I' has become a best-seller. Sue Townsend takes the Royal family and in a very entertaining way, puts them eye to eye with ordinary people. The Queen is portrait in a very dignifying manner as a strong motherly person who tries to make the best of every situation. I wonder whether the Queen herself has read the book, I know she would approve.

Readers who decide to read this book, won't be disappointed. The book is witty, entertaining and funny. It is brilliantly written and what's more, at times it makes you laugh out loud, I wish I could write like that. This book should be in every book case !

This, like most of Townsend's work, is dark. There were things that Townsend wanted to comment on that she couldn't do with Mole, so she has made this protagonist a homeless woman on the run. However, as usual she is on form skewering the middle class, the upper-middle class granola crunching Gucci Socialists, and a society that allows people to fall so far. There are less laughs in this book, and there is a lot more darkness. But it is still Townsend, and her fans should give this one a try.

More action happens in this 134-page novella than I have read in novels four times its size. The heroine, Coventry Dakin, begins the novel by stating, "I am beautiful and yesterday I killed a man." From here, we go on a whirlwind journey, as Coventry eludes the authorities, abandoning her controlling husband and the two children she loves. She runs to London, lives as a homeless person, then as a domestic, and even stoops to one incident of prostitution.

Meanwhile, the brother she loves, Sidney, is off in Portugal with his wife, Ruth, and is no help to Coventry. There is the police inspector obsessed with capturing her, in a very Inspector Javert style. There is the relieved widow of the man Coventry presumably killed. And, there is the question that Coventry doesn't need to be running away at all. How could she have killed a man more than twice her size by hitting him on the back of the head with an action figure?

Sue Townsend's style is witty, acerbic, fast-paced, and incredibly different. It is amazing the characters she creates, and the situations she puts them in, and the novella is over almost as soon as you start it. Townsend is indeed a rare and gifted writer, and this book is a very worthy read.

This book is my absolute favorite. Utterly brilliant. When The New York Times praises a short, obscure comedic novel, you know it's got to be excellent--and it is.

I loved the other Mole Diaries but i found the wilderness years to be depressing. Adrian is pathetic and no longer so witty.

Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years is a good book but it seems to have lost the underlying realism of the earlier diaries. The humour just dosen't seem quite as good and Adrian just does too badly. Having said that he has to grow up and the book is very much an Adrian Mole diary. If you are addicted to the previous diaries then I would definetly buy this book.

The book I read and couldn't put down was Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend. This book is about a person called Adrian Mole who writes down all his depressions, affairs, hopes and problems. In this book Adrian Mole has grown-up and is 23 and 3/4. He lives in a box room in Pandora's house. Adrian is trying very hard to sell a novel called "Lo! the flathills of my homeland." He keeps getting lots of rejections from the BBC. Adrian lost his first love Pandora and she's now having an affair with his boss. Adrian's boss works for a nature magazine and Adrian has a paragraph about amphibians. But seeing there is hardly any staff he gets a lot of paperwork. Adrian is very depressed that Pandora doesn't want to marry him. He starts to see a psychiatrist, her name is Leonora and he falls in love with her. Adrian doesn't realise but a girl called Bianca fancies him at the corner shop. He soon finds a new job at a restaurant called Savages. Leonora isn't interested in him because she's already married and suggests they stop their sessions together. But Bianca still fancies him a lot. Adrian and Bianca start having an affair. He moves into her flat and they're both really happy. Soon though they split up because Bianca goes off with another man so Adrian is left on his own. He begs Pandora to let him back in her box room, reluctantly she agrees. Adrian is still working at the restaurant Savages and there is now a new girl working Savages called Jo- Jo. Adrian decides to take a holiday, which he thinks is an exotic holiday with hot sunny weather. It turns out to be a cold rainy adventure holiday! The holiday is a diaster, but when Adrian gets back Jo- Jo was waiting, and he drops his luggage and they embrace. The story Adrian Mole: the Wilderness Years was a fantastic book. I think the best chracter and star role was Adrian, because he was so funny! There was no chracter I didn't like because they were all cleverly made up and different. I really enjoyed this book it was interesting and funny, I couldn't put it down! Everything in it was detailed and outrageous! Sue Townsend couldn't have made it any better. I hope there will be a follow up to this fictional diary soon. I don't see how anyone can pick it up and not enjoy it, it's impossinle not to! Bye! The story Adrian Mole :The Wilderness Years was fantastic book. I think the best chracter and star role was Adrian,

Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend has become one of Britain's most famous contemporary authors, through her writings of a series of books in diary form written by the character, Adrian Mole. Her first Adrian Mole book was 'The True Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾'. From that successful start she has gone to write another for books, and through the books Adrian has grown from a 13 ¾ year old to an adult.

In Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years, Adrian is in his thirties and as always he is worrying. Is he a good father to his 3 and 13-year-old sons? Can he find happiness as a TV celebrity offal chef? Why won't the BBC produce 'The White Van', his serial killer comedy? Has he gotten over Pandora? Sue Townsend uses all of these things plus the political situation to write a comical diary.

I found this book extremely satisfying. I have not read an Adrian Mole book for a while a found that as usual I became totally absorbed within a matter of minutes, it was as if an old goofy friend had come back.

Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years is another brilliant Adrian Mole book. It is formula writing at its best. However, I feel that the test of Townsend's ability will be now enjoyable her other books are without Adrian.

It's a long time since I've read this extremely good book first. Lately, I've re-read it, and I've enjoyed it even more than the first time. Adrian Mole is the typical loser in life, so, in other words, he can be considered an "hero of our times". He can survive situations that would depress any strong person. Is he stupid? I don't think so. He lives as an eyewitness of any miseries and troubles that could happen in anyone's life, and also of incredible joys. The last pages of the book are very touching, giving the reader a warming surprise.

Someone said that Mole is the greatest British "diarist" since Samuel Pepys; I don't know if this parallel fits well, but in this series of books (to be continued, hopefully), we can read the diary of a life that could be the mosaic of the lives of us all.

Never read this book without reading the first few books. If not, you can't exactly get he's going through. His family's dysfunctional than ever, with a depressed dad, a desperate mum, and a loud-mouth sister half his age. The wit and humor is like that of the first book (Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4). He still has the teenage mentality even though he's 30 and has children. I found myself laughing with him. Least he doesn't sign his letters with "A. Mole" anymore, instead it's "A.A. Mole".

In the earlier diaries, it was easy to see Adrian as a "lovable loser." It's hard to find the lovable loser in this book. Adrian apparently forgets everything that happens to him, learns nothing from the books he reads, and has absolutely no human perception. Yes, there is some of this in the previous books, but in "The Lost Years" its all we're exposed to, and its very jarring considering Adrian's age. Heap on top of this Adrian's selfishness and you have a main character who is very hard to latch on to or care for.

In fact, there is no growth on Adrian's part. Throughout the book (particularly the last few pages) any development as a person is done to Adrian, not by him.

I'll read the next diary because I enjoyed the first few so much, but this one really shook my faith.

When I read the first book: "The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole" I was hooked and couldn't wait to read the sequel. The poor lad -- you couldn't help but take a liking to him and really hope that he becomes the intellectual he aspires to be or that he moves on to bigger and better things in life. "The Lost Years", while still quite humourous, makes you feel a little frustrated with Adrian--how he is so blind to the things that go on around him. He is SO wrapped up in himself and writing his novel that he ceases to grow -- socially, personally and in his career. Nonetheless, the book is an easy read and a must if you are a follower of the Mole. The end gives us Mole-lites hope in a new beginning for him in the next book: The Cappucino Years, which I am looking forward to reading.

The only reason that I am giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because I feel that only the original Secret Diary, being a cult classic, is worthy of that honor. With that said, I would urge anyone reading this review to read the Lost Years, particularly if they are familiar with the original Secret Diary. I grew up in the United Kingdom at about the same time period as the original diaries were set, and being a teenager myself then, I found the original work inspiring and insightful. Moreover, when read years later, one sees humor revealed that would have been unappreciated when originally read as a teenager. Having moved to the United States and having gone through high school and college, I lost touch with the works of Sue Townsend, and it was only by chance that I happened to spot the Lost Years at a bookstore, and decided to give it a read. The character Adrian Mole, now a single 20-something struggling with his role in society and his own personal failures and quirks, has grown up with me, remaining a reflection on my hopes and dreams as well as that of other "Gen X-ers." In the Lost Years, there is certainly a darker tone than in the Secret Diary or the Growing Pains, but this is more an accurate reflection of the character growing up. Throughout the novel, Adrian Mole struggles with his past, unrealistic expectations of himself, as well as the constantly shifting and evolving relationships he has with characters from his teenage years, such as Pandora, Barry Kent, and his parents. Throughout, Adrian's Peter Pan complex, where he refuses to let go of this past and refuses to grow and change, is the source of virtually all the conflict and tension in the book. The ending was in effect the symbolic death of Adrian's past, and was genuinely moving and hopeful. My only (very minor) complaint is with the ending, since it is Adrian's personality which gives the book its humor as well as its conflict, and it will thus be interesting to see if future Diaries will be able to maintain this humor while allowing Adrian Mole to grow as a person in light of the apparant, final change at the end. Still, a smashing novel.