Having battled down from the Midlands during the December freeze, Sue Townsend talks to the book group about the genesis of her much-loved fictional teenager, who has since grown into middle age over eight further books.
She explains that much of Adrian's character is based on her own experience as a "secret" writer for years, put off from going public with her work by a disapproving first husband. Her second husband proved much more encouraging, and after a creative writing playwriting course at a Leicester theatre, Adrian was born after an actor asked for an audition piece.
What followed, she explains, is in part "meant for mothers of teenage boys to give them an inkling of what goes on" in their very private minds. Like Adrian's, she says, they are full of dreams – not least, in his case, to become "an intellectual" – but they are also very judgmental of the adults around them.
Townsend also talks more generally about the unfashionable habit of keeping diaries, a practice which remains stubbornly popular despite the low esteem in which it is widely held. She also provides some intriguing hints about what is coming next for the middle-aged Mole.
