Biography
Adelle Stripe was born in York, UK, in 1976. Her writing is rooted in the nonfiction novel form and explores working-class culture, untold histories of Northern England, popular music, and smalltown life.
Her debut novel, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, was based on the life and work of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. Described by David Peace as ‘one of the great debut novels of the century,' Black Teeth was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Portico Prize for Literature. A new edition was recently reissued by Virago Press. The book will be published in France in 2026 by Les éditions du typhon, translated by Claire Charrier.
Stripe's second book, Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure was a Sunday Times bestseller. Co-written with lead singer Lias Saoudi, the biography charts the rise, fall and eventual salvage of one of the UK’s most controversial bands. It was shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize.
Base Notes, her recent memoir, is a poetic, poignant and bleakly comic chronicle of her formative years growing up in a northern brewery town during the late 20th century. It was a Telegraph book of the year. The Observer described it as 'a small, bleak masterpiece.'
Three of her poetry chapbooks (Dark Corners of the Land, Cigarettes in Bed and Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid) were published in limited edition, hand printed form by Blackheath Books between 2007-2012. The Humber Star - a lament inspired by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill and based on the experiences of her seafaring ancestors in Hessle Road - was performed live at John Grant's North Atlantic Flux for Hull City of Culture.
As a journalist, Stripe has contributed to The Quietus, Yorkshire Post, TLS, Crack Magazine, Record Collector, Sunday Times, Tribune and New Statesman. She has received writing commissions from the British Film Institute, Manchester Literature Festival, Leeds West Indian Carnival, Heavenly Records and Domino. In 2023, she recorded a New Postscripts audio essay based on J.B. Priestley’s classic wartime broadcasts as part of the BBC's centenary celebrations.
Stripe holds a PhD by Research in Modern British History and Creative Writing and was a Burgess Fellow at the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing in 2023. She is an editorial board member at British Pop Archive Books and a trustee at Mutton Fist Press, a small but perfectly formed printmaking charity based at the Bomb Factory, London.
She lives in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, and is currently writing her second novel.
