This selection of Roald Dahl's short stories is specially chosen for teenagers. The stories are a perfect introduction to the breadth of Roald Dahl's work for adults, as well as a wonderful collection in its own right.
Adrian Mole's first love, Pandora, has left him; a neighbor, Mr. Lucas, appears to be seducing his mother (and what does that mean for his father?); the BBC refuses to publish his poetry; and his dog swallowed the tree off the Christmas cake. "Why" indeed.
"Il faut d'abord que je vous dise deux choses sur moi : la première, c'est que je suis belle, la deuxième c'est que, hier, j'ai tué un homme du nom de Gerald Fox." Fuyant un mari ennuyeux qui voue un amour inconditionnel à ses quatre tortues domestiques, une existence monotone dans le lotissement des Chemins Gris ou il ne se passe jamais rien, et surtout la police, Coventry va se découvrir une âme d'aventurière... et de fugitive sans le sou. Tandis que tout le monde la recherche activement, ses tribulations en plein cœur de Londres, aux côtés de personnages tous plus rocambolesques les uns que les autres, vont se révéler plus drôles qu'une vie de femme au foyer dans la banlieue anglaise...
Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday and upcoming musical, at London's Menier
Chocolate Factory, with this new double edition, featuring the first two books
in the hilarious collection and see life through the spectacles of a
misunderstood boy growing up in the early 1980s. from publisher's description
Sue Townsend, a beloved British writer known for the Adrian Mole series, presents a gripping tale of love and loss in Ghost Children. Seventeen years ago, Angela Carr terminated an unwanted pregnancy, leaving the child's father, Christopher Moore, heartbroken and withdrawn. Their lives took separate paths, but a shocking discovery during one of Christopher's walks forces him to confront Angela about their shared past. As they reconnect, they grapple with the possibility of avoiding past mistakes and the shadows they cast on their future. This poignant narrative explores the complexities of love and the impact of loss, showcasing Townsend's signature blend of compassion and grit. Critics have praised the work as "bleak, tender, and deeply affecting," with the Mail on Sunday noting the strong emotional investment in the characters. The Daily Telegraph calls it "startling and raw," while the Guardian describes it as "engrossing, memorable, and moving." Townsend, celebrated for her humor and insight, has authored numerous bestsellers, including eight Adrian Mole books and other acclaimed novels and plays. She continues to reside in Leicester, her hometown.
THE GROWING PAINS OF ADRIAN MOLE is the second in the series to be a part of Penguin's Sue Townsend repackaging programme. A chance to sell Sue Townsend to a whole new audience!The troubled teenager continues to struggle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life. In between the ups and downs of his relationship with the divine Pandora and worrying that his genius is going unrecognized, Adrian Mole chronicles the pains and pleasures of a misspent adolescence.'The new book takes up the diary where the last left off, and is quite as classic' Financial Times
Adrian Mole is 39 and a quarter. Unable to afford the mortgage on his riverside apartment, he has been forced to move into a semi-detached converted pigsty next door to his parents, George and Pauline. His ravishing wife Daisy loathes the countryside, longs for Dean Street and has yet to buy a pair of Wellingtons; they are both aware the passion has gone out of their marriage, but neither knows how to reignite the flame. To cap it all off, Adrian is leaving his bed numerous times a night to go to the lavatory and has other alarming symptoms, leading him to suspect prostate trouble. Meanwhile, his mother thinks that an appearance on the Jeremy Kyle show might solve the mystery of her daughter’s paternity once and for all. And when George is asked to provide a DNA sample, will the shock kill him? He is already disabled, though still chain smoking and has had an ashtray welded onto the arm of his wheelchair. As Adrian’s worries multiply, a phone call to his old flame Dr Pandora Braithwaite, BA, MA, PhD, MP and Junior Minister in the Foreign Office, ignites memories of a shared passion and makes him wonder – is she the only one who can save him now?
The latest diaries of this set-upon yet ambitious closet genius are hilariously hedonistic and marvelously moving. They are filled with the kind of soulful, scathing and sly musings all of us indulge in but would never divulge. The most disarming pangs and prevarications are laid bare for our amusement. Adrian Mole - misunderstood, maligned, and muddled - is a nerdy hoot. And oddly captivating.
Adrian Mole�s pen is scribbling for the twenty-first century. Working as a bookseller and living in Leicester�s Rat Wharf; finding time to write letters of advice to Tim Henman and Tony Blair; locked in mortal combat with a vicious swan called Gielgud; measuring his expanding bald spot; and trying to escape the clutches of Marigold and win over her voluptuous sister Daisy� Adrian still yearns for a better, more meaningful world. And he�s not ready to surrender his pen yet�
"Adrian Mole is a 13-year-old boy. Adrian writes a diary about his school, his family and, of course, love. "There's a new girl in our class . . . I think I might love her. I am 13 ¾ years old, so I'm old enough for love!"--Publisher
It's 1997. Adrian, 30 is a chef at an up-market restaurant, selling down-market food for ridiculous prices. There, the only person who seems to notice he can't cook is AA Gill. But problems abound when, in a fit of madness, he agrees to become a TV chef on the show Offally Good.
A revolutionary British government orders the Queen to abdicate and the Royal family to vacate Buckingham Palace. Being rehoused on a council estate in the Midlands comes as a bit of a shock to Philip and Elizabeth. The intrusion of this family of "poshos" is a shock for their new neighbours too.
Whether in the guise of a 13 3/4-year old adolescent, a transvestite PM or the Queen reduced to living on a council estate, Sue Townsend has been brilliantly satirizing British life for more than twenty years. Penguin published all of Townsend's hilarious Adrian Mole books and The Queen in Hell Close is an extract from The Queen and I, a brilliantly acerbic take on a Royal Family in dire straits.
Enter the world of Susan Lilian Townsend - sun-worshippers, work-shy writers, garden-centre lovers and those in search of a good time all welcome. Over the last decade, Sue Townsend has written a monthly column for "Sainsbury's Magazine", which covers everything from hosepipe bans and Spanish restaurants to writer's block and the posh middle-aged woman she once met who'd never heard of Winnie-the-Pooh. Collected together now for the first time, they form a set of pieces from one of Britain's most popular and acclaimed writers that is funny, perceptive and touching.
Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the third book in his diaries, as 16-year-old Adrian navigates his way into adulthoodMonday June 13th I had a good, proper look at myself in the mirror tonight. I've always wanted to look clever, but at the age of twenty years and three months I have to admit that I look…
What if being Royal was a crime? The UK has come over all republican. The Royal Family exiled to an Exclusion Zone with the other villains and spongers. And to cap it all, the Queen has threatened to abdicate. Yet Prince Charles is more interested in root vegetables than reigning � unless his wife Camilla can be Queen in a newly restored monarchy. But when a scoundrel who claims to be the couple�s secret lovechild offers to take the crown off their hands, the stage is set for a right Royal show down. And the question for Camilla (and rest of the country) will be: Queen of the vegetable patch or Queen of England?
Nigeria, England, America, Jamaica; are you proud of where you're from? Dark skinned, light skinned, afro, weaves, who are your true brothers and sisters? When two brothers from different continents go down the street to buy a pint of milk, they lift the lid on a disunited nation where everyone wants to be an individual but no one wants to stand out from the crowd. A debut work produced at the Royal Court's Young Writers Festival, Gone Too Far! is a comic and astute play about identity, history and culture, portraying a world where respect is always demanded but rarely freely given. Gone Too Far! premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2007 where it was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, 2008. It is published here in an abridged form as part of Methuen Drama's Plays For Young People series.
Behind the doors of the most famous address in the country, all is not well. Edward Clare was voted into Number Ten after a landslide election victory. But a few years later and it is all going wrong. The love of the people is gone. The nation is turning against him. Panicking, Prime Minister Clare enlists the help of Jack Sprat, the policeman on the door of No 10, and sets out to discover what the country really thinks of him. In disguise, they venture into the great unknown: the mean streets of Great Britain. And for the first time in years, the Prime Minister experiences everything life in this country has to offer - an English cream tea, the kindness of strangers, waiting for trains that never come and treatment in a hospital - and at last he remembers some of things he once really cared about...
The day her children leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. She's had enough - of her kids' carelessness, her husband's thoughtlessness and of the world's general indifference. Eva's refusal to behave like a dutiful wife and mother soon upsets everyone but she insists on staying in bed. And then the strangest things start to happen. A funny and touching novel from Britain's funniest writer for over 30 years.
From the back cover: Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major brings together the three bestselling volumes of Adrian Mole's diaries for the 1980s - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, The Growing Pains of Adrian Albert Mole and True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole - with Adrian's previously unpublished diaries for 1989 and 1990. For the first time between the covers of one book, these are the complete Adrian Mole diaries, taking him from 13 3/4 to 23 3/4.
Morrigan Crowe is listed in the Register of Cursed Children. She is accused of
all possible sins - from hail to heart attacks. But worst of all, Morrigan is
cursed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday. But a strange man named
Jupiter North appears. He insists that the girl win a place in the prestigious
Society of the Prodigiously Chosen, so she will have to endure four difficult
and dangerous exams along with hundreds of other children, each of whom has an
extraordinary gift. And Morrigan, as she herself insists, has no gift. In
order to save herself, the girl will have to pass a test - or leave the city
to face fate...
Dlouho očekávané nové pokračování světově proslulé řady knih o věčném smolaři Adrianu Moleovi zavádí čtenáře do Velké Británie roku 2002. Adrian nyní dosáhl středního věku, pracuje v knihkupectví, má za sebou dvě nevydařená manželství a je otcem dvou synů. Jeho sen o kariéře úspěšného spisovatele se rozplynul. Obdiv svého okolí se snaží získat alespoň luxusním bydlením, což ho ovšem uvrhne do zlověstné spirály rostoucího zadlužení. Navíc se málem ožení s Marigold, pološílenou vyznavačkou alter-nativního způsobu života. Najde v sobě sílu zrušit zasnoubení a navázat nový vztah s krásnou Daisy?
A harmincas éveiben járó Adrián továbbra is aggódik: Válhat még belőle jó apa? Csak átverés a Viagra? Miért nem akarja a BBC megfilmesíteni az ő sorozatgyilkosról szóló komédiáját, A fehér furgont? Belsőségekre specializálódott, ünnepelt konyhafőnökként, szingli szülőként és szüzességi fogadalmat tett regényíróként vajon megleli-e a beteljesülést, amire vágyik? Vajon Blair Szép Új Nagy-Britanniájában van-e helye Adrián Mole-nak?
Adrian Mole žije spočiatku v komore Pandorinho oxfordského bytu a pracuje v odbore pre životné prostredie. V práci ani v súkromnom živote nie je spokojný, a ani jeho posedenia u krásnej psychoterapeutky Leonory nie sú účinné. Spriaznenú dušu nachádza v trafikantke Bianke, kvalifikovanej inžinierke. Či je to tá pravá, ktorá naplní Adrianovu túžbu po naozajstnej láske, a akú úlohu zohrá v Adrianovom ďalšom živote jeho chlapčenský otčim a nigérijská študentka Jo Jo, to sa dozviete v štvrtom, poslednom pokračovaní denníkových záznamov Adriana Mola.
Adrian Mole, der legendäre, tragigkomische Held und Tagebuchschreiber, hat endlich die Pubertät hinter sich gebracht. Das will nicht heißen, dass er nun erwachsen ist - jede Seite seiner neuesten geheimen Aufzeichnungen beweißt das Gegenteil.
Kniha o hrdince s neobvyklým jménem Coventry se čte jedním dechem. Hned v prvních řádcích se dozvídáme o zločinu, jehož rozluštění se dočkáme až v samém závěru. Coventry je na útěku a svou svízelnou životní situaci využívá k tomu, aby se vymanila z nudného stereotypu vzorné ženušky v domácnosti. Poprvé v životě se dostává z provinčního městečka na severu Anglie do Londýna: velkoměsto objevuje nejprve z roviny ulice a prostředí bezdomovců, později se při práci pomocnice v excentrické domácnosti ocitne mezi potrhlými intelektuály, nahlédne i mezi společenskou a politickou smetánku. Autorka jejím prostřednictvím velmi vtipně kritizuje, ironizuje a paroduje všechna prostředí, kterými Coventry postupně prochází.
Texty shromážděné v této knize původně vznikaly jako příspěvky do časopisu The Magazine. Sue Townsendová je psala v letech 1993–2001. V podstatě jde o vtipné střípky z autorčina života – Townsendová s nezaměnitelným a nenapodobitelným humorem popisuje svou rodinu a drobné domácí trampoty. Dočteme se o problémech s řemeslníky v domě i o potížích s novými domácími spotřebiči. Zkrátka o všem, co zpříjemňuje či znepříjemňuje život jedné normální britské ženy ve středních letech.
In dagboekvorm geeft een 13-jarige jongen commentaar op de moderne leefcultuur en de politiek. Dagboeknotities van een 13-jarige jongen die het leven op school en thuis niet makkelijk vindt.