Adrian Mole 07; The Lost Diaries 1999-2001

First appeared in The Guardian from 4-12-1999 to 24-1-2001Entering ‘early middle age’ Adrian Mole lives alone with his two sons and a growing suspicion that life is passing him by. But that’s the least of his problems. Forced to move his family to the notorious Gaitskell Estate, Adrian is soon doing hilarious battle once again with the fickle finger of fate – and more immediately: feral neighbours and rampant head lice, an on-off affair with shaven-headed housing officer Pamela Pigg, Pandora Braithwaite MP’s Westminster tribulations, a fraternal reunion from hell, moral decline in The Archers, several disastrous brushes with employment and even a flirtation with therapy (and his therapists). Adrian also has to cope with both parents being admitted to hospital (and one sent to prison), the welfare of a pair of impressionable boys, the genesis of a brand new novel and formal confirmation at last that he is indeed suffering from severe hypochondria. Oh, and an earthquake. In Leicester. Can Adrian make sense of his own life at a time when the entire world seems to have lost the plot?