The Diary of an Unwilling Virgin

I thought that it was a good book I really enjoyed reading it - what's next? --Shirley Robertson OBE (Two Times Olympic Gold Medalist in Sailing: 2000 and 2004 Games)

I really enjoyed the book --Alan Titchmarsh, Broadcaster/Writer

When Adam Pearson, 39, came across the secret diaries he had written as a teenager, he found himself chuckling at his angst-ridden, adolescent scribblings. They inspired him to start a novel in diary form, relating a year in the life of Troy Brown, a football-mad 15-year-old living in Cowes. From January 2003, Adam sat at his computer at home in Cowes every night. He wrote in intimate detail about each day in Troy s life: Outbreaks of spots, crushes on girls, adventures with schoolfriends and the fortunes of Southampton Football Club. By February 2004, he had completed the diary and he spent a further six months fine-tuning the story. He then decided to spend some of his savings on having it published by Apex, a subsidised publishing company that he found on the internet. The Diary of an Unwilling Virgin will be published on August 1 and Adam believes that it will be popular with teenagers and adults. I have written it for children some of the material is quite adult. I think the story will appeal to older teenagers and people like me, who remember what it was like to be a teenager. There are lots of references to football, so I think other fans will find it interesting, particularly Saints fans. I m not too sure Pompey fans will like it very much though. A friend who read the manuscript described it as Adrian Mole meets Fever Pitch. Yes, it is a bit like the Diary of Adrian Mole, except Adrian Mole was a geek who hated football and Troy is a normal teenager who is interested in girls and football. Nick Hornby s character was a massive Arsenal fan and this affected his relationship with his girlfriend. There is a lot of comedy in my story too. Some of it is toilet humour, which is inevitable since the characters are teenagers. There is also situational comedy, where the naivete of Troy and his friends gets them into trouble. There are sad bits too, involving family secrets, which upset and confuse Troy. He is on an emotional rollercoaster throughout the year. Like Troy, Adam grew up in Cowes, apart from four years when he lived in Cardiff. In the book, Troy lives with his parents, but Adam was raised by his grandparents from the age of five, after his parents divorced. My granddad and my uncle are big football fans and got me interested when I was at primary school, said Adam. I used to support Manchester United, which is a bit of an embarrassment to me now. I gradually switched to supporting Southampton and have been a season-ticket holder for the last eight years. Adam kept a diary intermittently between the ages of nine and 23. I only stopped when my girlfriend started reading my diary, he said. Knowing someone else was going to read it, it was pointless carrying on. For a diary to be worthwhile, it has to be secret. Adam lives in Albert Street, Cowes, with his wife, Debbie, a hairdresser, and their daughter, Alicia, 8. He works as a repro operative for a pre-print packaging company near Portsmouth. I did very badly at English at school I failed my English GCSE. But secretly I have always wanted to write a book and in fact I did write a novel when I was about 20 but my father lost the manuscript. I also wrote some stories for my daughter when she was younger. I have never been a great reader but the Harry Potter books got me reading. They also inspired me to start writing. I realised I had to create an imaginary world and throw some characters into it and see what happened. That is basically how I started Unwilling Virgin. There were points when I struggled but mostly I enjoyed writing the book. I enjoyed developing Troy s character. At the beginning, he is very self-centred and naïve in his decision-making. As the year goes on, he matures, becoming more responsible, open minded and sensitive to others. He starts as an only child, but during the year he di --Sue Lupton, Isle of Wight County Press