This is the brand new edition of the hilarious eighth book in the brilliant "Adrian Mole" series, Sue Townsend's "Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years". Sunday July 1st. No Smoking Day.

This is the brand new edition of the hilarious eighth book in the brilliant "Adrian Mole" series, Sue Townsend's "Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years". Sunday July 1st. No Smoking Day.

A momentous day! Smoking in a public place or place of work is forbidden in England. Though if you a lunatic, a prisoner, an MP or a member of the Royal Family you are exempt. Adrian Mole is thirty-nine and a quarter.

He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter. His parents live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is not well.

The bookshop in which Adrian works is threatened with closure. The spark has fizzled out of his marriage. His mother is threatening to write her autobiography ("A Girl Called Sh* t").

And Adrian's nightly trips to the lavatory have become alarmingly frequent..."A tour de force by a comic genius and if it isn't the best book published this year, I'll eat my bookshelf". ("Daily Mail", Books of the Year). "Effortlessly hilarious.

Brilliant satire and tragedy". ("The Times"). "Hilarious.

Comic gold". ("Sunday Times"). Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author.

Since the publication of "The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4" in 1982, she has made us weep with laughter and pricked the nation's conscience. Seven further volumes of diaries have followed: "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole", "The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole", "Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years", "Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years", "The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole", "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction" and "Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years". All have been acclaimed bestsellers, some have been adapted for radio and TV, starring Lulu, Julie Walters and Stephen Mangan, among others.

She has also written six other popular novels ("The Queen and I", "Queen Camilla", "Number Ten", "Rebuilding Coventry", "Ghost Children" and "The Woman Who Went to Bed for A Year") and penned many well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.