Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile

(Paperback)

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE

'A beautiful period piece of 1980s Britain, as funny and sad as anything by Dunbar herself' Alex Preston, Observer (Books of the Year)

'An outstanding debut novel' Yorkshire Post

'It fizzes like two Disprin in a pint of cider . . . You can read it in an afternoon and should; there are too few British novels as effervescent or as relevant as this' Andy Miller, Spectator

Best known for her classic black comedy Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Andrea Dunbar wrote three plays before dying at a tragically young age. This new literary portrayal features a cast of real and imagined characters set against the backdrop of the infamous Buttershaw estate during the Thatcher era.

A bittersweet tale of the north/south divide, it reveals how a shy teenage girl defied the circumstances into which she was born and went on to become one of her generation's greatest dramatists. Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile is a poignant piece of kitchen sink noir that tells Dunbar's compelling story in print for the very first time.

Adelle Stripe's writing has been described as having 'an abundance of life, from the casually joyful to the casually harrowing, but always profoundly empathetic'. Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile is her keenly anticipated debut novel.

Reviews

Snaps and prickles and brings a talented, troubled woman to life. [Stripe] gives an important story a real spark: Dunbar s energy and mischief bubble in the bleakness - Guardian

An impressively accomplished and important first novel. In a beautifully rendered double narrative Adelle Stripe gives voice to a lost genius. Heartfelt, passionate and profoundly relevant

Stitched together from letters and scripts, newspaper cutting and fractured memory, it is an undeniably harsh, yet fair portrait of one of the UK s most original voices - Yorkshire Post

Everything about this novel, the stuff of it, is wondrously, awfully, beautifully alive, as teeming and seething and tragic as Andrea Dunbar's own wild work and life. My book of the year so far

Author Bio

Adelle Stripe was born in 1976 and grew up in Tadcaster. Her debut novel, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, is inspired by the life and work of playwright Andrea Dunbar. It was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Portico Prize, an award for outstanding literature that best evokes the spirit of the North. A stage adaptation received widespread critical acclaim and was included in the Observer's Top Ten Shows of 2019.

Adelle is the author of three poetry chapbooks including 3:AM Magazine's Poetry Book of the Year, Dark Corners of the Land. She is a regular contributor to The Quietus, and her writing has appeared in the Guardian, New Statesman and Caught by the River.

She lives in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, UK.