These are the literary references in "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4" and "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole." Adrian is a teenager in 1980s Britain who thinks he is an intellectual, and starts borrowing books from the library to self-educate himself.
I get the feeling though, that author Sue Townsend was one of those people who noticed every bit of reading matter in a room as soon as she walked into it. The list of great works of literature is mixed up with: newspapers, magazines, children's books, comics, reference books, and a general haemorrhage of print. It's a bit blinding to look at, but it does reflect the reading world of the time.
Re-reading "Adrian Mole" these days has been great fun, as I get so many more of the literary jokes now then I did when I was thirteen.
P. S. It's fascinating to see what newspapers and magazines everyone's read - particularly as some of these publications have closed down since the 1980s. Such a shame "Big and Bouncy" was fictional.
