... He is very possessive and misses her dreadfully when Pandora goes on holiday. Adrian thinks he is an intellectual. He shows signs of being vaguely talented at English if he was a bit more modest about his work. Townsend uses humour to portray Adrian's character, she makes him sound funny and stupid. Things like: "I am reading ` Mill On The Floss' by a bloke called George Eliot." and: "Looked at Big And Bouncy. Measured my ` thing'. It was 11 centimeters. also: "Looked at Big And Bouncy. It is Passion Sunday after all" I find Adrian a very funny character. I have chosen two characters to examine in detail. They are Bert Baxter and George Lucus. Bert Baxter is the old age pensioner who Adrian volunteered to look after because he "misses maths on Monday afternoons." Bert is a grumpy old man who lives in a state of filth. Adrian develops avery close relationship with him throughout the book and at some point Bert moves in with Adrian for a while. George Lucas is (or was) Adrian's next door neighbour. His wife left him to join a women's group and he had an affair with Adrian's mother. Lucas comes across in the book as being very smarmy and selfish. He wears a lot of gold jewellery and reads naughty magazines. Adrian and Lucas do not get on. Adrian calls him names like``that creep Lucas'. George and Pauline broke up and Pauline moved back in with Adrian and his dad. Townsend uses language which is captivating. It feels like you are reading about a real boy, not a fictional character. The language is enthralling and it makes you want to read more. It is extremely descriptive and imaginative. The book is in the layout of a diary and is very neatly presented. The dialogue is amusing all the way through. Townsend uses humour to portray Adrian's character, which stops you feeling too sorry for him: "Their trunks writhe and twist into the earth and form a plethora of roots" (part of A.Mole's English essay) Adrian often tells short stories about his day in his diary entries. He includes dialogue, but he obviously tells it from his point of view. ...
