Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born on 5 May 1988 in Tottenham, London,
the daughter of an English mother, Penny Adkins (born c. 1970), and a Welsh father, Mark Evans.[17] Evans left when Adele was two, leaving her 20-year-old mother to raise her single-handedly.[18][19] She began singing at age four and asserts that she became obsessed with voices.[20][21] Growing up Adele spent most of her time singing rather than reading; the last book she read was Roald Dahl's Matilda when she was six years old.[22] In 1997, at the age of nine, Adele and her mother, who by then had found work as a furniture maker and an adult-learning activities organiser, relocated to Brighton in the south coast of England.[23]