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,
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ Barnes. Townsend adapted the book for the stage in 1984 with music by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley. There was also a 1985 television series. A successful stage production ran at the Wyndham's Theatre, London, in 1984-1986, that included Simon Gipps-Kent and followed with a road tour. A stage musical adaptation by Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary opened at Leicester's Curve Theatre in March 2015. Townsend had been working on the project at the time of her death. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ is the first book in the