Adrian Mole Doreen Slater, whom Adrian privately refers to as "Stick Insect". Brett makes a reappearance in the later books as a successful yet unpleasant businessman who loses his fortune during the credit crunch. Doreen is killed off in "Prostrate Years". Pauline temporarily marries her younger lodger Martin Muffet, who eventually leaves her for Adrian's girlfriend Bianca Dartington, giving Adrian and his mother a shared heartbreak. Later, George and Pauline effect a partner swap with Ivan and Tania Braithwaite (parents of Pandora), only to reunite after Ivan's untimely death. Adrian's half-sister, Rosie Germaine Mole (after feminist Germaine Greer), grows up to be
Saul of the Mole Men capsule. Saul soon finds himself in an underground world populated by "Mole Men" and "Bird Bats" as well as unexplained characters like "The Floating Pancake" and "Chinacula", a cape-wearing Chinese vampire. Though cut off from the surface world, Saul is elated, believing he will find evidence beneath the surface for his theory that there are sentient rocks descended from a huge "mother rock". Terrified by the Mole Men, Saul impulsively impales their king using the STRATA transmitter. The king eventually dies, touching off a power struggle between his two sons – the older (but corpulent and corrupt) Bertrum Burrows, and