Another great read from Sue Townsend.

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1. KLL

and back to sarahbear

Looking forward to catching up with Adrian after some years. Thanks sarahbear!

Second one down in Adrian Mole Bookbag! :-)

I remember being non-plussed the first time I read this, many years ago. And, frankly, the non-plussed-ness continues on this more recent reading. I'm assuming that Sue Townsend had an assortment of odds and sodds, some already published, which she decided to then gather into a book. I can appreciate the Mole entries, which build on from the first two books, and fill in some of the spaces in the story. However, Townsend's biographical stuff is really out of place - a trip to Majorca, a trip to Russia and an essay on England. I can only assume these are newspaper pieces published previously because in their own right they have very little context at all! (the Russian piece in particular coming across as a huge in-joke for the authors involved, but not really accessible to the rest of us).

The diary of Margaret Hilda Roberts is really just an extended joke - shorter than I remembered, but also a lot more cruel. Perhaps Margaret Thatcher deserved a long cruel joke, but again, it doesn't have the charm of Adrian.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to 'The Cappuccino Years', as this is a 'Mole' I haven't yet read. I hope to get onto it early in the new year, although I am wondering if I should source the fourth book,'The Wilderness Years' first, as I haven't read that one either!!

After a bit of a delay, I'm packing this up to send back to sarahbear tomorrow. Thanks again for lending them!!

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Back home :)

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Bag filler being sent to Briz-cowgirl

Received today with a massive pile of books from sarahbear, thank you!

Adrian Mole is so much different from how I first remembered him :(
I had to sneak "The Secret Diaries..." home from the library and hide it because I was banned from reading it at the time by my parents!
The Adrian section in this book was somewhat entertaining, although nothing like the earlier books. Sue Townsend's section was a bit all over the place for me, it felt like she'd just slapped together pieces that she'd written in the past. Margaret's bit was amusing, but it could have been a bit longer for my liking. I am tempted to go back and get out the original Adrian books to see if I still enjoy them...

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Heading off to piemunga with a bunch of other books...

received as part of a lovely birthday surprise package