Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE FOR LITERATURE & GORDON BURN PRIZE
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 
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. 
 
 
 
 
Press Quotes
 
‘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 and as relevant as this’ Spectator

‘Snaps and prickles and brings a talented, troubled woman to life… Dunbar’s energy and mischief bubble in the bleakness’  Guardian
 
'This is a love story of sorts, I think: it is at once loving and respectful to treat someone this way, to get close to them through both research and imagination, and also to understand that you cannot really know them'- Caught by the River  
 
'A beautiful period piece of 1980s Britain, as funny and sad as anything by Dunbar herself' - Observer

'An outstanding debut novel' - Yorkshire Post  
 
'Harsh yet beautifully wrought . . . It is fiction grounded in fact, re-telling Dunbar's short life that had plenty of drama of its own' - Independent
 
'The real deal' - The Times 
 
'A funny, desperately sad tale of a young woman whose blazing talent made her a once-in-a-generation dramatist' - Mail on Sunday
 
 
Available in paperback at Bookshop.Org, Blackwell's, Waterstones and your local independent bookshop
Published by Fleet and Wrecking Ball Press (2017)
ISBN: 9780708898956