Show Notes
For the fifth episode of the Working Class Library, the novelist David Nicholls joins Claire Malcolm, CEO of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, and to discuss Sue Townsend’s 1982 novel The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾.
Having initially been written for, and broadcast on, BBC Radio 4, The Secret Diary was the United Kingdom’s bestselling book of the 1980s, and to date has sold over twenty million copies, and been translated into almost fifty languages. It transformed the fortunes of Townsend, who had previously lived in dire poverty as a single mother after being born into south Leicester working class.
Many readers and writers who grew up with the novel name it as a major influence on them, and in the podcast, superfan David Nicholls considers how and why this is. Together, hosts and guest together show why if anything, Mole is underrated as a work of literature. Finally, we ask if it deserves a place on the shelves of our imaginary library of great books by and about ordinary people.
More from The Working Class Library
For the ninth episode of the Working Class Library, the writer and campaigner Terri White joins Richard Benson and Claire Malcolm to talk about the legendary Catherine Cookson. We focus on Cookson’s 1968 novel about a mixed-ethnicity marriage in 1920s Tyneside, but also talk a lot about the author herself, and her phenomenal popularity among working-class women readers in the late 20th century.
For the eighth episode of the Working Class Library, the globally bestselling author Lee Child joins hosts Richard Benson and Claire Malcolm to talk about Dreda Say Mitchell’s groundbreaking 2004 novel Running Hot.
In this episode of the Working Class Library, David Peace joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss David Storey’s classic, controversial 1960 kitchen-sink novel, This Sporting Life.
In the sixth episode of the Working Class Library, Kevin Barry joins Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss Frank McCourt’s 1996 memoir Angela’s Ashes.
For this episode, Richard and Claire are joined by novelist Sarah Hall to consider Flora Thompson’s memoir Lark Rise to Candleford.