The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, a novel by Sue Townsend, is the 2nd book in the Adrian Mole series, following on from "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾". It focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenage aspiring intellectual. The novel is included in the omnibus "". The book is written in a diary style and set in 1982 through to mid-1983. Notable events in this volume are the breakup and later reconciliation of Adrian and Pandora, Adrian's attempt to run away from home and subsequent breakdown, the birth of
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole his sister Rosie Mole, and Adrian's general worry about his O levels and nuclear war. Adrian Mole is an outsider who feels the reason he can't quite fit in with "regular" society is that he is an intellectual. Evidence from his diary entries include a precocious interest in literature, in left-wing politics, a desire to have his own poetry show on the BBC, his dislike of Margaret Thatcher and his frequent critiques of his less-refined schoolmates and family. Adrian's dysfunctional family, as in "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole", is one of the focal points of the book. Although portrayed