Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years

By: Sue Townsend

Narrated by: Ark Hadfield

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Adrian Mole is 39 and a quarter. Due to his financial situation, he has been forced to move next door to his parents. And his numerous nightly visits to the lavatory lead him to suspect prostate trouble.

As his worries multiply, a phone call to his old flame ignites powerful memories and makes him wonder - is she the only one who can save him now?

©2009 Lily Broadway Productions Ltd (P)2010 WF Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation." ( The Times, London)

I love Adrian Mole

And this book is no exception- i'm just so glad that Sue Townsend continues to write them. But, if beggars CAN be choosers, I thought this book ended too abruptly. I really wanted to know what happened next, and I really am hoping that the author let's us know sooner rather than later.
Narrator was brilliant and totally believable.

getting it in the end

Adrian Mole, twice-married, father of 3, writer, intellectual, bookshop worker, frequent urinator. He lives next door to his parents in a renovated pigsty. Although he doesn’t always agree with their choices, he does love them and helps take care of his father, who has been in a wheelchair since he had his stroke. He lives in Leicestershire, in the middle of England. It’s where he was born and grew up, and after spending several years in London as a younger man, he is back home where he seems to belong.

He is married to Daisy, a beautiful Mexican-English woman with strong opinions, and their daughter Gracie is a free-thinker who keeps getting in trouble at preschool for not wearing her uniform. Adrian works in the town’s bookshop, and is currently writing a play for the locals to put on, a 60-role work of historical fiction, Plague. And he’s having some health concerns, so he tries in vain to make an appointment with his doctor. After he goes to an after-hours clinic and finally makes it to his doctor’s office for a follow-up, he is faced with the bad news: prostate cancer.

As he considers his options, family and friends gather near to help. He gets in more help at the bookshop, his mother offers to take his to his radiation treatments, and Daisy gets a job to help with the expenses. He has to set aside his work on Plague for the time being, but everyone in town is quick to ask him about his prostrate cancer (after a few times, he stops correcting them) and to offer words of kindness.

And all of it is captured in his diary.

The last in the series of the beloved Adrian Mole diaries, Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years finishes the journey that we started with Adrian back when he was only 13 3/4. Author Sue Townsend brings the tale full circle, with Adrian learning how to love his life, love his parents, and love his future.

I have read all of the Adrian Mole books, most of them several times, and I never tire of spending time with Adrian and his friends and family. For Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years, I listened to the audio book, and narrator Mark Hadfield brought the story to life for me in the most enjoyable way.

If you’re not familiar with Adrian Mole, I’d suggest you start at the beginning, but you don’t have to. Each of these 8 books is a masterpiece of dry English understatement, of family and all its complications, and of one man’s secret thoughts. Each book is moving, charming, funny, frustrating, and perfectly lovely, and now that I’ve reached the end (again), I’ll just have to go back to the beginning and start all over again.

It's good, but not the best

If you like the series, you will like this. New funny characters. The narrator is allright, but not as good as the original

EXCELLENT

What made the experience of listening to Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years the most enjoyable?

SUE TOWNSEND DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. HER STORIES ARE INTELLIGENT AND VERY FUNNY. GREAT BRITISH HUMOR AND IRREVERENCE. ITS GOOD TO LAUGH AT SOMEONE ELSE BEING SELF DEPRECATING.

Welcome reunion with an old friend

I've grown up with Adrian Mole and have, through the years, enjoyed the wonderful books by Sue Townsend. Adrian started off life as a weedy, pompous boy, and is now nearly 40. The voice of Adrian, sympathetically narrated in this book, made me feel warmer towards him than I have in previous books. That had little to do with the prostate troubles of the title, and more to do with the growing certainty that Adrian is more sinned against than sinning, and perpetually misunderstood. This book accompanied me on several trips down the M3 and back, and the miles flew by. This is a warm, and uplifting book, despite the title and Adrian deals with his travails with courage and gusto, and always does the next right thing. Bravo, Adrian!

superb

yet again, Sue Townsend produces another comic masterpiece involving her most enduring charactor Adrian Mole. As with the most recent books in this series, the mixing of humour and sadness is wonderfully done and this book is no exception. One of the best things about these books is that even though most of the situation our hapless hero finds himself in are totally unrealistic and yet, you find yourself believing in them and in Adrian himself... wouldn't we all love to know someone like him? lastly, a word on the reader- a great choice, Mark Hadfield read the book wonderfully.

Brilliant

Would you consider the audio edition of Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years to be better than the print version?

Yes

What was one of the most memorable moments of Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years?

Some of Bernard Hopkins reactions to events and people

What about Ark Hadfield’s performance did you like?

Fantastic, made me feel more involved with the book and accents/voices were just brillaint

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Made me laugh for sure.

Awful narration

Excellent final instalment of Adrian Mole’s diaries completely ruined by the appalling narrator who insists on portraying East Midlander characters with Birmingham accents. Adrian’s mother who, admittedly, grew up in Norfolk, but has lived her entire adult life in Leicester, is given the broadest ‘Farmer Giles’ style accent imaginable. The rest of the characters are given a range of stereotypical, cartoonish, occasionally quite offensive accents which seem to travel around the country (or in a few cases; the world) from one sentence to the next.
It doesn’t even need the accents! The boom is written from Adrian’s point of view, his diary, his narrative, his inner voice. So the ridiculous array of voices only serves to spoil the otherwise hilarious and often very poignant words that Sue Townsend has written.
The narrator of the previous two books, Paul Daintry, was bad enough but this is a new low! I loved Nicholas Barnes’ portrayal in the earlier books and really wish he’d been able to do the full series of Adrian’s diaries.

Comic genius as ever

Any additional comments?

Adrian Mole, as ever, is amusingly believable in all his idiosyncrasies, and the narrator has done a very good job of remaining deadpan for even the most laughable of his woes.

Laugh Out Loud Fantastic

Got a few strange looks while driving listening to this book! It is great to listen to in the car. Any fans of Adrian Mole must buy this book, it is the best one of the lot. Great Read\listen.

sad and funny

How can a book about marital breakdown, redundancy and cancer be so funny? I absolutely loved this book and was sorry to reach the end. Sue Townsend has not written a sequel so far, what a shame. If anyone has a relation or friend with cancer, read this. I loved Hadfield's narration, and will look for others read by him.

A Hoot

Sue Townsend does it again. Another chapter in the life of our dear friend Adrian Mole and a great picture of life in the 21st century. Laugh out loud funny, yet also thought-provoking. Hurry up Sue and write the next one!

The Adrian We've Grown Up With

I was first introduced to Adrian Mole back in 1986 whilst on one of those survival skills camping trip with school, never looked back following him through all his decades into the Prostrate Years. This one is beautifully written, soft, warm, sad, hilarious, harmonious, its the adrian we grew up with matured, coping with health crisis, marriage breakup, redundancy, what ever life throws at him but finding his way through into a happy balance regardless. Adrian Mole is a hero, if you've followed the series dont miss this one its absolutely brilliantly written and narrated, entertaining and funny with lots of heartwarming moments too. Definitely a Five stars listen which has left me wanting more tales from Adrian Mole in the future.

Accents?

I much prefer the previous narrator of the A. Mole books available on Audible.
Why does Wayne Wong have a stereotypical Chinese accent in this reading when he's from Leicester? An odd choice.