Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years - Softcover

Townsend, Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141046465 ISBN 13: 9780141046464

Publisher: Penguin, 2012

Synopsis

'One of the greatest comic creations. I can't remember a more relentlessly funny book' Daily Mirror

The fifth book in his hilarious diaries, where Adrian faces divorce, fatherhood and (short-lived) television stardom . . .
__________

Adrian Mole is thirty, single and a father.

His cooking at a top London restaurant has been equally mocked ('the sausage on my plate could have been a turd') and celebrated (will he be the nation's first celebrity offal chef?).

And the love of his life, Pandora Braithwaite, is too busy as the newly elected MP for Ashby-de-la-Zouch to notice him.

Frustrated, disappointed and undersexed, Adrian despairs until a letter from his past changes everything . . .
__________

'With the Mole books, Townsend has an unrivalled claim to be this country's foremost practising comic novelist' Mail on Sunday

'Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation. Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself' The Times

'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

'Three cheers for Mole's chaotic, non-achieving, dysfunctional family. We need him' Evening Standard

About this title

Review

Adrian Mole is balding, he's bitter and he's back, this time aged 30¼. Working at the Hoi Polloy restaurant, Soho, where a typical menu includes:

Heinz Tomato Soup,
(with white bread floaters)

Grey Lamb Chops
Boiled Cabbage avec Dan Quayle Potatoes
Dark Brown onion gravy

Spotted Dick à la Clinton
Bird's Eye Custard

Cheddar Cheese, Cream Crackers
Nescafé
After Eight Mint

he is spotted by a cable TV producer and ends up starring in a celebrity chef show celebrating offal. Though he may be older he is certainly no wiser, still passing his time by dreaming of Pandora (now a shining star in Tony Blair's New Government) after his marriage to a Nigerian beauty ends in tatters. But underneath the layers of experience and sophistication, fans of the Mole family will find the same dysfunctional mess that made Adrian's Secret Diary an instant bestseller--his young son is being brought up by his mother in Ashby-de-la- Zouch, his 16-year-old sister leaves home to live with her multiply pierced boyfriend and his father is bed- bound with manic depression. Adrian still makes constant lists of juvenile neuroses and concentrates on his penis activity to an unhealthy extent (it is when it reaches 0/10 he realises something has to be done).

Townsend's trademark acerbic wit is still much in evidence;

Zippo kissed my mother's hand and complimented her on the shirt she was wearing. 'Is it Vivienne Westwood?' he murmered.
'No', she muttered back. 'It's BhS'.
'You clever thing', he crooned.

it is only the frames of reference that have changed. Occasionally verging on the corny ("I arrived at the Brent Cross shopping centre car-park, to find that my car had been towed away five days ago and was in a police compound somewhere in Purley. A £25 cab ride took me to the Purley gates ...") true Mole fanatics will forgive Townsend her occasional excesses for the numerous laugh-out-loud moments that punctuate Adrian's existence as he blunders on towards middle age.

Accessible, amusing and appealing, The Cappuccino Years see an Adrian who has survived the Growing Pains; thought better of True Confessions; is out of the Wilderness Years and is facing the only really important question that remains: Is Viagra cheating? --Lucie Naylor

Review

Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the fifth book in his diaries, where Adrian faces divorce, fatherhood and (short-lived) television stardom (from publisher's description)

One of the greatest comic creations. I can't remember a more relentlessly funny book (Daily Mirror)

With the Mole books, Townsend has an unrivalled claim to be this country's foremost practising comic novelist (Mail on Sunday)

Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation. Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself (The Times)

Three cheers for Mole's chaotic, non-achieving, dysfunctional family. We need him (Evening Standard)

The funniest person in the world (Caitlin Moran)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0141046465
• ISBN 13: 9780141046464
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448