MARK HIGHWATER

Bored In The Eighties: A Real Teenage Diary Volumes 1 & 2

When Mark Highwater stumbled across his teenage diaries—written 40 years ago, starting when he was just 14—he was struck by one shocking realisation: his childhood was mind-numbingly boring.

Would kids today even understand half the things he wrote?

Why was his ZX Spectrum computer connected to a tape recorder instead of the internet?

Who on earth was Samantha Fox, and why was he obsessed with her?

Why did he have to walk to his friend's house just to check if they were home?

Why was he not having an exciting time battling multi-dimensional monsters like in Stranger Things??

Inspired at the time by Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole Diaries, teenage Mark had hoped he was crafting something equally compelling. What he rediscovered, however, was something entirely different. No dramatic storylines. No big revelations. No life-altering tragedies. Just an ordinary teenager navigating an extraordinarily dull existence.

Presented in full, straight from the original manuscripts, and paired with modern-day commentary, this quirky time capsule offers both a hilarious look at how much life has changed and a reminder of the universal awkwardness of the adolescent male.

A historical document? Perhaps.
A peek into the absurd mundanity of 1980s youth? Definitely.

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