Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE FOR LITERATURE & GORDON BURN PRIZE
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 
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 tragically short 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

‘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' - Alex Preston, 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 
 
 
Available in paperback at Bookshop.Org, Blackwell's, Waterstones and your local independent bookshop
First published by Fleet and Wrecking Ball Press 
Virago edition forthcoming in 2025