The framework for this book is Adrian's futile campaign to get his deposit back for a holiday on Cyprus that he has cancelled due to the threat to the island from Saddam's famous weapons. The travel agent refuses to believe that there are any such weapons, and Adrian's letters to Tony Blair asking for evidence he can use in his case remain unanswered. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes a victim of the consumer credit boom, buying things he can't afford on his salary as an assistant in a secondhand bookshop: not least his studio flat in the prestigious Rat Wharf development, where he is terrorised by a swan that looks like Sir John Gielgud. And Glenn is sent off to "somewhere sandy" by the army. ( )

If you want to make a total shambles of your life, read this wonderful book. It's hard to imagine how Adrian could have done worse than he did - and all with such good, sound reasons!

This might be the bleakest of the Adrian Mole novels, and possibly the best. Adrian is his usual loathsome cowardly self, but the effects of this are saddening rather than maddening. His emotional neglect of his children is heartbreaking; forgetting William's birthday and telling squaddie Glenn that he should trust Tony Blair are two of Adrian's low points - the latter leading Glenn to Iraq and trauma. The Marigold storyline is pretty grim too - and I am not certain whether or not having Adrian palm her off to his friend represents Adrian's misogyny or society's misogyny, or perhaps was just the easiest way to get her out the way and get Adrian to her wedding to ruin it. What Daisy sees in him I couldn't say... But by the end of it we know he hasn't changed, yes he no longer believes Tony Blair is a decent and honourable man, but that's the end of it... unlike most of the earlier novels the ending suggests personal development, but here its just a happy ending for him and that's it, and that itself if pretty bleak... ( )

This is yet another laugh-out-loud Adrian Mole diary. This time he begins the diary at the age of 34, but he is still the same earnest, pedantic, letter-writing Adrian.

He has moved away from his flaky parents’ home into a pricey loft apartment on Rat Wharf, not realizing that there’s a reason for the “rat” appellation. It could also have been called “Aggressive Swan Wharf” for that matter, but we’ll get back to that later.

Adrian is a great admirer of Tony Blair and a staunch believer in the existence of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, and is thus a supporter of Britain going to war.

He is a would-be published writer but hasn’t as yet achieved any success in that field; he is working on a book to be entitled “Celebrity and madness” but neither has he yet persuaded any celebrity to allow him to interview him or her on that subject, not surprisingly, considering the title.

Adrian is the arranger of a creative writing group that meets regularly though he does not wholly appreciate the literary efforts of the others. One of the members is the elderly Gladys, who keeps writing soppy poems about cats, such as:
“Poor Blackie’s up in Heaven,
God took her life away,
He said, you’ll go to Devon,
And have a holiday.”

Unfortunately, he has little success in persuading celebrities to visit the group and give a talk; as far as I recall, Cherie Blair doesn't even deign to reply to his letter. Thus, the group rapidly dwindles to only two.

Adrian has two sons, Glenn, 17, who is in basic training in the army, and in danger of being sent off to war in Iraq, and a younger son, William, who now lives with his mother in Nigeria.

Glenn writes frequent letters to Adrian, but unlike his verbally proficient father, Glenn is rather lacking in basic grammar and spelling skills.

Adrian is still madly in love with his childhood sweetheart, Pandora, who is now a junior minister and a household name. He somehow becomes involved with a woman called Marigold and then with her sister, Daisy, even though Marigold is insisting that he marry her. There are numerous complications.

He furnishes his loft apartment with stylish new furniture not to mention curtains for his glass lavatory, whose see-through walls are extremely irritating for the prudish Adrian; but he does so through the kind services of MasterCard and Barclaycard who insist on forcing him to accept thousands of pounds in credit and sending him blank cheques; this, of course, leads to poor Adrian getting into a pretty pickle as far as his finances are concerned.

It now only remains to mention the aggressive swans that inhabit the canal adjacent to Adrian’s abode. The leader of the pack, Gielgud, is “particularly vicious” and takes an instant dislike to Adrian. The town council member to whom Adrian complains fails to understand the problem; they won’t help him get rid of the swans but will grant him help with conflict resolution work with his supposed neighbour, Mr. Swan, whom they understand to be the source of the problem.

There are many more complications and convolutions in Adrian’s story, including the problems of his parents who can’t find out which romantic partners they wish to have, and those of his gay, blind friend, Nigel.

The book is brilliantly written and uproarious and reminds us of what was going on in Britain and the world in 2002 and 2003. The main theme concerns, of course, Adrian’s obsession with the weapons of mass destruction and the war in Iraq. ( )

A beautiful addition to the series. I find I'm relating more strongly to Adrian as he grows older I(imagine that!). Not ashamed to say that I teared up at the end of this one. Long live Adrian Mole! ( )