Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile

 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE FOR LITERATURE & GORDON BURN PRIZE
 
They used to say I had a chip on my shoulder. Whatever that means. I couldn't ever work that out but I know I always felt that I wasn't as good as other people. I was angry.

Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile tells the story of the short, explosive life of playwright Andrea Dunbar. Interweaving fact and fiction, letters and scripts, newspaper stories and memory, Adelle Stripe reveals how a shy teenage girl defied the circumstances into which she was born, and the prejudice she met, to become one of her generation's greatest dramatists...

Set against the backdrop of the infamous Buttershaw estate in Bradford during the Thatcher era, this is an exhilarating and unforgettable account of an extraordinary woman's life, her tragedies and her triumphs. 
 
 
Press Quotes
 
'One of the great debut novels of the century, and one of my very favourite books ever' — David Peace, author of The Damned United  
 
‘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’ — Andy Miller, Spectator
 
'A magnificent tribute' — Les Inrocks

‘Snaps and prickles and brings a talented, troubled woman to life… Dunbar’s energy and mischief bubble in the bleakness’ — Guardian
 
'A beautiful period piece of 1980s Britain, as funny and sad as anything by Dunbar herself' — Observer Books of the Year
 
 
'This playwright, who will never achieve the status of one, grapples with a rage, a wit, a sense of friendship and solidarity among women, from which Adelle Stripe weaves a very modern narrative' —Télérama
 
'Strikingly realistic, yet not devoid of tenderness in its gaze, it is reminiscent of Ken Loach's films, or Mike Leigh's High Hopes' — Livres Hebdo

'An outstanding debut novel' — Yorkshire Post  
 
'Dunbar does not emerge from Stripe's fictionalisation as a victim, but as a clever, unhappy woman who deserved better' — The Stage
 
'Harsh yet beautifully wrought ' — Independent
 
'The real deal' —The Times 
 
 
Virago Press (2025)
First published by Wrecking Ball Press / Fleet in 2017 
Translated into French by Claire Charrier for Les Éditions du Typhon in 2026
 
UK ISBN: 9780349020105
FR ISBN : 9782488685139
 
To buy a copy visit Waterstones, Foyles, Bookshop.Org, Topping & Co or order via your local independent bookseller