Penguin publishes Adrian Mole's collected poetry to mark his 50th

Penguin is publishing The Collected Poems by Adrian Mole - in the character's own "imprint" Mole Press - to celebrate the 50th birthday of Sue Townsend's creation.

The book, out as a paperback on 16th March in time for World Poetry Day, is a collection of the character's poems from all eight of his diaries brought together for the first time. 

It will include poems such as his debut "The Tap", as well as odes to his muse and only true love Pandora ("I adore ya"), as well as his burgeoning political anger in Mrs Thatcher, "Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?"

All eight diaries are being re-published to mark the occasion, with new anniversary covers, and the first two books in the series, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, brought together in a single edition for the first time.

Townsend first introduced Adrian (then Nigel) in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982, with The Secret Diary... published later that same year, and the series running until book eight Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years in 2009 (Penguin). The Leicester-bred character's fictional birthday is in 1967.

To celebrate further, there will also be an Adrian Mole-themed tote bag, after Penguin also teamed up with Books Are My Bag to create a limited edition "Mole is My Bag" cotton tote. These will be available to buy from selected booksellers from 23rd March, when the newly jacketed diaries are released.

Townsend’s long-time publisher, Louise Moore, m.d. at Michael Joseph, said: "Sue Townsend was a brilliant, funny woman, who wrote such intricate and hilarious fiction. It’s seen as easy, and I think that’s extraordinary, when it’s so hard to do. The fact that we are celebrating Adrian on his 50th birthday, and what would be Sue’s 71st, shows how deeply placed Adrian is in the public consciousness. I couldn’t be prouder that Michael Joseph is launching Mole Press to both celebrate his landmark year and finally put him out of his angst-ridden misery as a published poet."