The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Hobbies, Leisure, Books, Arts

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

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Summary

The wonderful Nina Stibbe, award-winning novelist and diarist, joins us for a discussion of Sue Townsend's classic comic creation. When it was first published in 1982, the confidential journal of Leicester's foremost teenage poet and intellectual was an overnight success, eventually going on to become the best-selling British novel of the 1980s. Four decades on, we can see it for what it truly is: a masterclass in the art of writing comic prose and a work of political satire that stealthily made its way into several million British homes. Nina, Andy, John and Nicky celebrate Sue Townsend's life and career, laugh at her jokes, and make the case for her to rank alongside Charles Dickens, Stella Gibbons, George Grossmith and E.M. Delafield in the pantheon of British writers. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patron at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Backlisted, the podcast which gives new life to old books.
0:13.3	The book featured in today's show needs very little introduction.
0:16.3	It's the 1982 bestseller, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 in two quarters by Sue Townsend.
0:25.7	I'm John Mitchinson, a writer and publisher.
0:28.1	And I'm Andy Miller, the author of the Year of Reading Dangerously.
0:31.9	And today we welcome a return guest from the past.
0:36.4	It's like in Doctor Who when they bring back an old companion
0:40.6	from many years earlier. And she last joined us to discuss Philip Larkins, a girl in winter,
0:49.3	which, in a behind-the-scenes glimpse, she didn't actually like very much.
0:58.8	Live at the Port Elliott Festival back in September 2018,
1:03.6	it's the writer and noted diarist, Nina Stibby.
1:05.4	Hello, Nina.
1:07.6	Hello, thanks for having me back.
1:14.5	Thanks for coming back with a book this time that you have warmer feelings for, I hope. Yes, yes I do. Definitely. Okay, good. Lesterborn Nina is the author of seven books.
1:22.8	Love Nina, winner of the nonfiction book of the Year award at the National Book of Awards 2014,
1:27.7	shortlisted for Waterstone's book of the Year, was adapted for BBC television.
1:32.3	Her novels, Man at the Helm, 2014, and Paradise Lodge, 2016, were both adapted for serialisation on BBC Radio 4,
1:40.7	and shortlisted for the Bollinger Every Man Woodhouse Prize for comic fiction.
1:46.1	Her third novel, Reasons to Be Cheerful, 2019, won both the Bollinger Everyman Woodhouse
1:51.4	Prize for comic fiction and the Comedy Women in Print Award. A collection of stories and
1:56.4	articles, An Almost Perfect Christmas, 2017 was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 over Christmas 2020.
2:02.7	Her most recent novel, One Day I Shall Astonish the World, 2022,
	...

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