The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (Adrian Mole #2) by Sue Townsend

Format: Print
Read: April 2026

Adrian’s second diary carries right on from the first (in 1982), and sadly, his family troubles don’t get any less. This one leans more into the political and social commentary (including his infamous poem about Thatcher), and Adrian certainly goes through a tougher time than in the previous book.

Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?
Do you wake, Mrs Thatcher, in your sleep?
Do you weep like a sad willow?
On your Marks and Spencer’s pillow?
Are your tears molten steel?
Do you weep?
Do you wake with ‘Three million’ on your brain?
Are you sorry that they’ll never work again?
When you’re dressing in your blue, do you see the waiting queue?
Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?

As was well signposted towards the end of his last diary, with Adrian being seemingly oblivious, he ends up with not one but two new siblings! Stick Insect has Brett, which reveals his father’s (George) ongoing affair and blows the Mole marriage apart (again), and then, some months later, his mother (Pauline) has Rosie (possibly fathered by Rat Fink Lucas). Pauline and George continue to be on-and-off, and the whole situation is messy.

“Put your coat on, Adrian, I’m taking you to be abandoned.”

Their money troubles also don’t abate, George remains unemployed, and there is also a particularly traumatic couple of weeks where the pregnant Pauline is waiting to receive a many weeks overdue giro cheque (social security benefits). This leads her to make a public protest at the social security office that gets her in the paper, although Adrian doesn’t record his feelings about it, but it must have been a humiliating experience for both of them.

The following corrections appeared in the local paper tonight:
Mrs Pauline Vole would like to correct an inaccurate statement attributed to her in yesterday’s edition of the paper.
She did not say, ‘Adrian means more to me than life itself.’

Adrian’s mental health suffers significantly from the stress of his dysfunctional parents, looming O’Level exams and your typical teenage identity issues. In a surprising turn of events, he briefly joins Barry Kent’s gang, which turns out to be very boring, and he laments his parents’ lack of notice at how ‘off the rails’ he’d gotten. He loses Pandora, and he is faced with reckoning the reality of his academic abilities with his lofty “intellectual” ambitions. Being 15-16 is tough, even without such a chaotic home life, and I think there is a lot that anyone who can remember being this age can relate to.

6. I’ve never heard of a sixteen-year-old having their own poetry programme on Radio Four. You must set yourself realistic targets.

Although often Adrian comes across as self-interested, there are more glimpses into his capacity for compassion. Though previously he’d been critical of his mother’s feminine and maternal qualities, he does take her side when his father’s betrayals come to light, and he is caring and supportive. He also mentions staying up all night checking the breathing of his newborn sister every ten minutes (speaking to his spiralling anxiety as well as his care). And of course, there is his relationship with Bert, which I find extraordinary, and extends as far as tending to his personal care, including bathing him (with Pandora’s assistance, even more extraordinary to me!).

Bert needs twenty-four-hour round-the-clock care, by people who love him.

The problem is that very few people, apart from Mother Theresa and a few nuns, could put up with Bert for more than a couple of days.

I know I’ve made the content sound rather depressing; very little goes well for Adrian, but it never feels that way. Sue Townsend doesn’t let things get maudlin; this is still a riotously funny book because we get it all through the lens of Adrian, and he’s so fantastically written.

In other exciting Adrian news, they’ve announced the cast for the new BBC adaptation I had no idea was happening before I started this re-read! It looks like they are being book-accurate and not giving him glasses! I am holding out hope for a Leicester accent. The writers attached to it look promising as well.