Do Mole's Have Oeuvres?

Moody Mole

With this brief entry I have finished all 11 sections of AM's diaries and very fulfilling they are - the definition of bitter-sweet. Now we just have to wait for the official Volume 10 (two of the diaries are just fragments in various publications). I only had to order one from the library - my copy of The Wilderness Years seems to have vanished into the ... er ... wilderness. Adrian Mole is a writer up there with Proust for detail of observation and despite the exquisite pompousness of his own literary efforts the diaries are strangely free of overt pretension. While reading the last book I think I identified at least three levels of irony. Sue Townsend for Prime Minister! Brett Mole for Chancellor! The horrible truth is that I started writing poetry because of Adrian Mole. My early efforts were as bad if not worse than his but I like to think I've progressed more than Adrian. Only you can tell me whether that's true.

From this to a lazy Saturday morning listening to that nice Stuart Maconie's Freakier Zone with extracts from the releases on Brian Eno's Obscure Records label. Boy is giving the various tracks either a thumbs-up or thumbs-down with one fingers-in-ears, which is disappointing though maybe not very surprising.