Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile by Stripe, Adelle

Author: Stripe, Adelle

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 6 February 2025 by Little, Brown Book Group (Virago Press Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 256 pages
196 x 129 x 21 | 206g

Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Portico Prize for Literature’As funny and sad as anything by Dunbar herself’ Observer, Books of the Year’One of the great debut novels of the century, and one of my very favourite books ever.’ David PeaceThey 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. Praise for Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile’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’The author’s voice and Dunbar’s mingle to create not just a portrait of an artist – funny, mischievous, reckless and truthful – but also divisions of class, geography and opportunity which continue to shape this country’ Spectator