Sending out an SOS/ Sending out an SOS.

ADRIAN MOLE: THE CAPPUCCINO YEARS
SUE TOWNSEND

Not the best of the Mole oeuvre, but fairly representational. Funny in bits, peopled with dysfunctional characters, and hysterically British.

Perhaps I discovered it too late. After all, the first Mole diary appeared in '82, a good fourteen years before Bridget introduced us to a world populated by Colin Firth, singletons, smug marrieds, and f*kwits.

Gave up reading it a couple of times, but it's one of those harmless little books that forgive you easily. I really appreciate that.

Can't see myself as a huge fan, but the Mole books would fit quite comfortably on a shelf alongside Gayles and Fieldings.

Lessons learned:

1. There is a place in Leicestershire called Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Seriously.

2. Every British comic novel must feature an obsession with a TV character completely unknown to the rest of the world. For instance, Bridget worships the completely unfanciable (or so I thought till I read this!) Colin Firth. And young William Mole, Jeremy Clarkson.