The Diary of a Nobody the first, "The Diary of a Somebody", is a direct reference to the Grossmith original. Reviewing this volume in "The Spectator", Benny Green points out several parallels with the original, in both character and event. Matthew's book, says Green, is amusing, but the Grossmiths' book is superior; it is "affecting as well as comical, in a way that the Matthew pastiche is not". In 1982 came the first appearance of Sue Townsend's teenage creation, Adrian Mole, whose passage into young manhood and early middle age is charted in a long series of diaries. The more middle-aged he becomes, says Morton,
Alan Blaikley Blaikley and Howard's concept album, "Ark 2" (1969), performed by Flaming Youth, drew the comment that Blaikley and Howard "have a wit, gaiety, dignity and melodic flair reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein...which suggest that pop is becoming the serious music – in the proper sense – of the age" Blaikley and Howard wrote two West End musicals, "Mardi Gras" (Prince of Wales Theatre, 1976) and "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole" (Wyndham's Theatre, 1984 – 1986), and two BBC TV musicals "Orion" (1977) and "Ain't Many Angels" (1978). They also wrote music and lyrics to the 1990 UK tour of Roald