Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years

Sue, Townsend

ISBN 10: 0141800909 ISBN 13: 9780141800905

Publisher: Penguin, 1999

Synopsis

'I take up my pen, once again, to record a momentous time in the affairs of men (and, thank Christ, because this is intended to be a secret diary I am not compelled by the sexual discrimination laws to add "and women").' So begins the latest volumeof Adrian Mole's diary. It is 1 May 1997. Now 30 1/4, a celebrity chef at Hoi Polloi restaurant, Soho (and still an unpublished novelist), Mole has returned to Middle England to cast his vote for the ravishing Chanel-suited Labour candidate, Dr Pandora Braithwaite. An accidental celebrity, with a spreading bald patch, Adrian is still worrying: Will the Dome be finished on time? Is Viagra cheating? Why won't BBC1 produce The White Van, his serial killer comedy?

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)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0141800909
• ISBN 13: 9780141800905
• Binding: Audio Cassette