Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years
Written by Sue Townsend
Narrated by Nicholas Barnes
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Sue Townsend
Sue Townsend was born in Leicester, England, in 1946. Despite not learning to read until the age of eight, leaving school at fifteen with no qualifications, and having three children by the time she was in her mid-twenties, she managed to be very well read. Townsend wrote secretly for twenty years, and after joining a writers’ group at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, she won a Thames Television Award for her first play, Womberang, and became a professional playwright and novelist. Following the publication of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, she continued to make the nation laugh and prick its conscience with seven more volumes of Adrian’s diaries, five popular novels—including The Queen and I, Number Ten, and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year—and numerous well-received plays. Townsend passed away in 2014 at the age of sixty-eight, and remains widely regarded as Britain’s favorite comic writer.
More audiobooks from Sue Townsend
The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen and I Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queen Camilla Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Public Confessions of a Middle Aged Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebuilding Coventry Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ghost Children Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Adrian Mole
Titles in the series (7)
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999-2001 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related audiobooks
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999-2001 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Livin' the Dreem: A Year in My Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebuilding Coventry Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ghost Children Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Goose Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Look Who It Is!: My Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rachel's Holiday Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paper Aeroplanes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Shit Life So Far Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry Hard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anoint My Head: How I Failed to Make it as Britpop Indie Rockstar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Lie I've Ever Told Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Mummy Drinks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sushi for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ramble Book: Musings on Childhood, Friendship, Family and 80s Pop Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Work! Consume! Die! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Bloody British: A Well-Meaning Guide to an Awkward Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Satsuma Complex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fat Chance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Saturday Night Sauvignon Sisterhood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Checking Out Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under the Duvet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Humor & Satire For You
Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Librarianist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humans: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Jane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unf*ckology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scrappy Little Nobody Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Stay Married Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love and Other Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soulmate Equation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happy People Are Annoying Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die: Unveiling Death One Question at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Wishes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Black Unicorn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Adrian Mole
192 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Always a good time...on to the Capuccino Years!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Back to diary format, opening with Adrian lodged in Pandora's box-room in Oxford and working — on the strength of his non-existent biology "A"-level — on the newt desk at the Environment Department. The story takes us on to a Soho restaurant and to Adrian's epiphany at a writers' workshop on Naxos, with some nice comic scenes along the way, but there's always a sense here that Townsend hasn't really got a feel for the adult Adrian yet, and she makes him unnecessarily autistic to force comedy out where it doesn't belong.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This diary recounts further hilarious episodes from the life of Adrian Mole. He is now nearly 24 years of age.The first entry is from January 1st, 1991 when Adrian has a throbbing head owing to being “forced” to drink excessive amounts of alcohol at his mother’s party the night before. (He obviously is unable to say “no”.)Sue Townsend describes not only Adrian’s life but the lives of the whole host of characters in his life.Adrian’s life is dictated by these other people. He is still in love with Pandora, now married to a bisexual semi-aristocrat who wears a monocle, and with a lover called Professor Jack Cavendish (it is Pandora who has the lover, not her husband, though I’m sure he has many too).: he still looks after the centenarian. Bert Baxter, buys his “vile” cigarettes and cuts his “horrible” toenails.Adrian has an 8-year-old sister, Rosie.His first love is now Dr Pandora Braithwaite, fluent in Russian, Serbo-Croat and “various other little-used languages” (Though I wouldn’t say Russian is little-used.) She looks more like a supermodel than a Doctor of Philosophy.At present Adrian is living in Pandora’s box room in Oxford, still hoping to marry her one day, and still hoping to become a famous author.He is working at the Department of the Environment charged with protecting colonies of newts, paid to champion their rights but privately sick of them.Adrian is trying to find a girl-friend by a series of blind dates, who either don’t turn up or who leave in a hurry with some lame excuse or other.He is normal-looking, clean and pleasant, yet can’t get a young woman into his bed.Adrian’s father had an illegitimate son, Brett, born to his lover, termed Stick Insect by Adrian. His mother had a short affair with the neighbour, Mr Lucas. He himself had an affair with an illiterate woman called Sharon Bott but deserted her when she announced she was pregnant. (Prepare for a series of DNA tests subsequent to these infidelities/affairs.)Adrian despises himself – he feels he is a loathsome person.He spends much time penning poems, included in his diary for our edification, and has begun to write an experimental novel, originally written with consonants only.Feeling that Adrian is in dire need of psychological help, Pandora makes an appointment for him to see her friend, Leonora De Witt, who is a psychotherapist.Britain is at war with Iraq, and Adrian hires a portable colour TV so he can watch it in bed.Adrian’s old class-mate, Barry Kent, who bullied him at school, is becoming a famous writer – one of the characters in his book, Dork’s Diary, is coincidentally called Aiden Vole and is an “outrageous caricature” of Adrian – he “is obsessed with matters anal. He is jingoistic, deeply conservative and a failure with women.”Sue Townsend is one of my absolute favourite authors. The Adrian diaries reflect and parody life in Britain in the years in question.In my view, and everybody else’s too, I’m sure, Sue Townsend is immensely gifted, and her books are some of the funniest in print. She has a talent for finding the humorous sides of all the negative aspects of life.I highly recommend that you read this volume too.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The fourth installment of diary entries of Adrian Mole, now an adult still in love with Pandora (although it is no longer mutual) and still misunderstanding most of the events in his life. Adrian might not be a teenager anymore, but he is still wonderfully naive and entertaining. The satire in Townsend's books works because Adrian is so very sincere about everything he believes, although some of his ideas and views are so very ludicrous; he manages to be endearing even when he goes completely bonkers. The audiobook narrator, Nicholas Barnes, does a really great job with Adrian's voice.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As an artist who must go where my pen leads me, I obviously identify with Mr Adrian Mole. Sue Townsend (RIP) manages to get into the mindset of a young, gormless man and takes us along for the ride."The Wilderness Years" sees Adrian mong along life's railroad, watching as others in his vicinity make it big, such as Pandora and Barry Kent. There are also other women in his life like Bianca and Jo Jo, and thus more opportunity for Adrian to prove he is as clueless about women as the rest of us.I stopped reading Adrian Mole not long after this edition but don't let that hold you back from the wilderness.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Adrian Mole, erstwhile novelist and self-styled intellectual, returns for a fourth installment of his diaries. While the first 3/4 of this book was more or less filled with the same whining naivety of the preceeding volume of this series, I was pleased with the final quarter in which Adrian seems to finally be growing up. Not a moment too soon. I am now vindicated in having purchased the entire series and am looking forward to the next volume.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5sue townsends alter ego, adrian as a young adult absolute scream