Is there a better chronicler of modern Britain than Adrian Albert Mole? Over the past three decades, he has described the ordinary life of an ordinary man, providing a rich seam to be mined by future historians. They probably won't get some of the gags - and they might be bewildered by many of the references - but they'll be rewarded with a vivid portrait of the way we live now.

As this book begins, Mole is facing yet another unhappy new year. He's in his early 30s and living in Ashby de la Zouch with his two sons, William and Glenn. Over the following two years, he revisits many of the obsessions - and jokes - that will be familiar to anyone who has read his previous diaries. The lack of cards on February 14. The letter from the BBC, promising to produce his latest magnum opus, which always arrives on April 1. The irresistible rise of Pandora Braithwaite. The chaotic relationship of George and Pauline Mole, his parents. The endless messy gloom of his love life.

Confiscated for seven years by HM police - in the mistaken belief that they might incriminate the author - these diaries tell of Adrian Mole's lost years on the cusp of the second millennium.

The 'same age as Jesus when he died', Adrian has become a martyr: a single father bringing up two young boys alone in an uncaring world. With the ever unattainable Pandora pursuing her ambition to become Labour's first female PM; his over-achieving half-brother, Brett, sponging off him; and literary success as elusive as ever, Adrian tries to make ends meet.

But little does he realize that his own modest life is about to come to the attention of those charged with policing The War Against Terror...