Adrian Mole discovering that he himself has cancer. His loyal friend and co-worker Bernard Hopkins comes to the rescue, moving in with him and promising to remain until his cancer is in remission. Fortunately Adrian's cancer treatment is successful and Bernard leaves to pursue romance with a local widow, giving Adrian a pig as a farewell present. The final book ends with Adrian finding out he will be a grandfather and Pandora arriving outside the house. The Mole family is dysfunctional. Adrian's parents Pauline and George Mole are working-class characters with limited social mobility who drink and smoke heavily. Both are often
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ of Prince William. Mole is also a fierce critic of prime minister Margaret Thatcher, listing her as one of his worst enemies. Apart from the humorous events described in the diary, a lot of the book's humour originates from the unreliable narration of Mole, who naïvely, yet confidently, misinterprets events around him. The book was first published in hardcover by Methuen on October 7, 1982. Sequels include (in chronological order): The book was a best-seller, and had sold 1.9 million copies by November 1985. A 7-part radio series on BBC Radio 4 featured extracts from the book read by Nicholas