Adrian Mole: The Weapons of Mass Destruction (Adrian Mole #6) by Sue Townsend

Format: Print
Read: May 2026

The last couple of Adrian Mole books had my interest waning, but this book feels like something of a return to form. The Cappuccino Years in particular felt unfocused and lacked the sharp social commentary and satirical elements that made the first books in the series so special. As you can probably glean from the title, The Weapons of Mass Destruction, Sue Townsend better anchors Adrian in the zeitgeist of the early 2000s and Toby Blair’s New Labour, including the invasion of Iraq by UK and US forces.¹

Adrian starts his diary on 29th September 2002. He is now 34, and he is still at Wisteria Walk with his parents (who are back together, I think re-married), but his two sons are both living away from him – William is with JoJo in Nigeria, and Glenn (now 17) has joined the army and is away training. Adrian currently works in a local bookshop for a nice older gentleman called Mr Calton-Hayes; it seems he has finally found a job that suits him (which also provides commentary on the struggle of local independent booksellers). He is also running a local writers group, although it only has four members.

After she’d slammed out, I consulted The Joy of Sex and discovered that I’d probably been paying too much attention to relatively unimportant bits of her genitalia while ignoring the clitoris even though it had been staring me in the face for the last few months.

He meets a woman named Marigold Flowers who works nearby in her parents’ florist shop. She at first has a fragility and vulnerability that excites him, but quickly he realises she is manipulative and unstable (and overindulged by her parents). He doesn’t like her, never mind love her, but finds himself unable to get himself out of an engagement he never agreed to. Things get more complicated when he falls for her sexy older sister, Daisy.

He also buys a trendy Loft apartment in a fictional part of Leicester called Rat Wharf. Not only can he not afford the mortgage, but it turns out to be besieged by a menacing swan whom he names Gielgud (because he reminds him of the classical actor Sir John Gieldgud). Adrian’s troubles with this thuggish swan did keep me chuckling – I especially loved the running joke that every person he mentioned this to would say, “They can break a man’s arm, you know.”

While increasingly depressed by his relationship with Marigold, he also gets himself into a quickly spiralling debt. It feels to me like Townsend was early on this conversion, though, of course, I was too young to have experienced any of this directly (16 years old when this was published). I found a Guardian article from 2004 that describes how easy it was to get into debt in exactly the way Adrian does. Of course, with the credit crunch/financial crisis that happened in 2008 (4 years after this novel was published), it was interesting to me that Adrian has no problem getting a mortgage that costs £723 a month when he only earns £1,000 (almost prophetic of the coming crash!)!

He also gets offered even more credit from his bank – apparently, they used to send you loan checks! – and store cards which he uses to buy all manner of expensive goods he doesn’t need (a talking Smeg fridge!). Before long he’s borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Along with how predatory these banks and loan companies were (still don’t understand why the AA lends credit!), and ridiculously easy it is to take on debt, he also discovers the many hidden charges in life that can catch us out… especially legal advice, where your solicitor will charge you silly money for reading and writing a letter in which they say absolutely nothing helpful.

I wasn’t entirely surprised to see Adrian fall into this trap. He’s always had ambitions and an idea of himself that are at odds with reality, and without the motivation, means, or circumstance to do change it. He has also never been great with money; every book he has had to withdraw money from his ever-dwindling building society savings account. Sometimes this was to help out his parents, who are also terrible with money (and relationships)! In this book, they fall prey to the 2000s barn conversion trend, sell their house on Wisteria Walk and move to a field with old pig sties in it with the idea they’re going to self-build their dream house! Adrian has never had a well-paying job for long, and can be naive and easily led (see Pandora, Marigold, and his unshakable faith in Tony Blair!). Even his time as a “top chef” in Soho was cash-in-hand, sporadic payments from Savage (something that will come back to haunt him!).

Glenn’s deployment to Iraq was very moving. Adrian’s dread that he’d be sent once he turned 18, the inevitability of it, and Glenn’s sweetly innocent letters home that get progressively sadder and full of his fear. The letters include his best friend Robbie, who doesn’t have any family of his own, so Glenn asks them to send him cards.

Wednesday May 21st
Letter from Glenn.
Dear Dad
I am sorry to bother you, but I have got a bit of a problem, which I hope you can help me with. Is there a book in your shop that tells people how to stop being scared? I am scared every time I go on patrol in Basra. Sometimes it is so bad that I am shaking. I don’t think anybody has noticed yet, so I’m not in trouble or anything. It’s just that I am worried that if trouble starts I will let the rest of the lads down.

Dad, I feel like running away when the crowds start throwing stones and petrol bombs.

If there is a book, it could teach me not to be so scared of having my balls shot off, like one of the Yanks did last week.

Also, Dad, when we are at the checkpoints, the people can’t tell what we are shouting at them, and we can’t tell what they are saying to us. So everybody gets mad with each other. So if there is a book, could you please send it to me.

Loads of love
From your son, Glenn
PS Don’t tell Mum I am scared. Tell her I am having a good laugh and getting a suntan.

Glenn also bemoans the unfit and poor equipment that the British soldiers have, and asks Adrian to buy him and Robbie some proper boots that won’t melt when they have to walk on top of hot metal vehicles.

💔 Heartbreaking.

Adrian’s diary ends at a really poignant moment, then picks up a year later, revealing he lives with Daisy, and their daughter, Grace, at the Piggeries with his parents. Daisy reminds me too much of Adrian’s mother, Pauline (and Pandora!) to think that that relationship is going to be a happily ever after…

It was also poignant that Sue Townsend has Nigel (Adrian’s best school friend) go blind, as she lost her own sight in 2001, and I believe had to dictate this novel to her husband. It doesn’t feature heavily, because this is Adrian’s diary, but he does occasionally visit Nigel to read to him, and reports Nigel’s grouchy moods and curt responses to empty platitudes.

I really enjoy this one and blew through it in only 5 days! One more book left to go, I don’t really remember that one at all, but I hope it is just as good.

Also, I’ll mention at the end, since I forgot to earlier – this book confirms that Adrian does wear glasses now in his mid-thirties! But there is no proof that he ever did as a teenager!

For Law of Fives, this is a book published in 2000s.

1. It has been a bit spooky to read this 24 years later while there is another war between Iraq and Iran, with the US getting involved (sorry, “making a peace deal”), every day people are getting poorer than ever with inflation and bills sky high, and even Tony bloody Blair has popped back up this week to give his unsolicited opinions on Kier Starmer and the current Labour government. ↩︎