The final book in the Adrian Mole series, and this ones a classic. Adrian continues his life as a bad husband, inattentive parent, and general useless lump, only this time he maybe gets a happy ending. Or maybe he doesn't, its unclear.

Things that I notice on the second reading that I missed the first time round: The "prostrate" joke in the title works in multiple ways - firstly, because throughout the book Adrian is enraged at people confusing the words prostrate and prostate. Secondly, because in this book Adrian is defeated by life. Unlike earlier books he is no longer really an agent of his own misfortune; instead he is flotsam, unable to even to make the decisions necessary to screw up his own life. Even with Pandora throwing herself at him he is not able to act. He is basically face down in the mud and drowning.

Secondly, the ending is so wonderfully ambiguous. There's a mess of good luck and bad luck that reflects real life. As our last ever visit to Adrian its brutal but in this its just right,

Yes, this is a fine book and a great finale to the series. Its a damn tragedy that we'll never get to see any more of the Mole family. ( )

Sue Townsend had more than enough direct personal experience of serious illness and its treatment in the last years of her life, and she puts that to good use here, in an uncharacteristically dark episode. Adrian's idyllic family life in a Leicestershire village is threatened by the usual external things — the pub, church and post-office all seem to be in danger — whilst his marriage, his job and his health are all under attack too. And the economy is falling apart, whilst his mother has somehow been persuaded to appear on Jerry Springer. This is probably the least obviously funny part of the cycle, but it does have its fair share of comic moments, and Townsend treats the emotionally difficult subject-matter with lightness and sensitivity. ( )

Can't manage this during the Covid-19 lockdown. Not the book's fault.

Adrian is now approaching 40, his son Glenn is in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban, Adrian is having problems with his prostate and his marriage to Daisy is falling apart.

Adrian is living in a concerted pigsty and working at a bookshop.

Mr Carlton-Hughes who owns the bookshop is ill. He lives with his friend Leslie but Adrian doesn’t know whether Leslie is a man or a woman.

Adrian’s little daughter Gracie is quite the dictator and wins every argument against him.

He is still an incessant letter-writer. He writes to a man who has attained the advanced age of 109 pestering him about how he has kept his hair. (Apparently Adrian has not.)

He has written a play, Plague!, set in the medieval countryside and has given lines to over 60 people.

He informs us that he is 20 per cent agnostic and 80 per cent atheist, but still feels guilty about not going to church.

Tony Blair has finally resigned as leader of the Labour party and will be standing down as P.M. (So apropos these present days when Theresa May has done the same vis-á-vis the Conservative party.)

Gordon Brown is the new PM and Adrian immediately commences to write to him and ask him to look into his tax affairs.

Daisy now weighs thirteen stone twelve ounces, which would be great if she were a light-heavyweight boxer.

It is raining incessantly. On Sunday 1st July smoking in a public place or place of work is forbidden. “Though if you are a lunatic, a prisoner, an MP or a member of the Royal Family you are exempt.”

Re MPs being exempt, ha, ha! – no surprise there – they exempt themselves from everything!

Adrian’s parents are smoking fanatics.

One of the boys at Gracie’s nursery school has a packed lunch of “two bags of crisps, a bottle of Coke, a bag of Haribo sweets, and a cheese string”. This is no doubt taken from real life.

Daisy meets Hugo-Fairfax-Lycett, soon to be her lover.
Adrian’s blind friend falls in love with another blind man much to Adrian’s perturbation.

There are many storylines in the book but the main one is Adrian’s bladder/prostate problem. The title of the book “The prostrate years” is a pun referring to the fact that most of Adrian’s uninformed family and friends refer to his sickly gland as his “prostrate” when in fact the correct word is “prostate”, and Adrian on account of his problem is “completely overcome with distress and exhaustion” (definition of “prostrate” in the Oxford English Dictionary).

It turns out that Adrian has cancer so his life revolves around his visits to the hospital for chemo treatments.

I understand from the dedications at the beginning of the book that Sue Townsend herself had health problems while writing the book (and in general I know had severe health problems).

One thing is certain in my view – one of Sue Townsend’s main achievements was transforming the negative into the positive, and despite her poor health and suffering became one of the funniest writers in Britain, brightening up the lives of her readers by her humorous books, not least the Adrian Mole diaries. ( )

Painful, funny, wise, and unbelievably thick, Adrian Mole lives on...and he's almost caught up to my age. Not sure how to feel about that. But, no doubt, I'll read the next installment. ( )