THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION FEATURING A BRAND-NEW INTRODUCTION FROM CAITLIN MORAN 'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written' ADAM KAY, GUARDIAN 'Every child in the country should receive a copy on their thirteenth birthday' CAITLIN MORAN'One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us' OBSERVER

Friday January 2nd I felt rotten today.

It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics.

Next year I could be in a children's home. Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life as he writes candidly about the dog, his parents' marital troubles and life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual.