Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile
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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 Peace
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.
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
'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 Peace
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.
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
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- Published: Feb 06 2025
- Pages: 256
- ISBN: 9780349020105
Press Reviews
- Guardian
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
Jake Arnott, author of The Long Firm
An impressively accomplished and important first novel. In a beautifully rendered double narrative Adelle Stripe gives voice to a lost genius. Heartfelt, passionate and profoundly relevant
- Yorkshire Post
Stitched together from letters and scripts, newspaper cutting and fractured memory, it is an undeniably harsh, yet fair portrait of one of the UK s most original voices
Jenni Fagan, author of The Panopticon
This outstanding debut novel is told so naturally that it feels that we are there alongside her. A great achievement
Alex Preston
Observer (Books of the Year)A beautiful period piece of 1980s Britain, as funny and sad as anything by Dunbar herself
Andy Miller
SpectatorStripe's novel mixes fiction and biography in a manner that brings to mind the work of the late Gordon Burn . . . It fizzes like two Disprin in a pint of cider. 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. You can read it in an afternoon and should; there are too few British novels as effervescent or as relevant as this
- Independent
Harsh yet beautifully wrought . . . It is fiction grounded in fact, re-telling Dunbar's short life that had plenty of drama of its own
Michael Arditti
BBC Radio 4 Saturday ReviewExtraordinary
- Yorkshire Post
An outstanding debut novel
Niall Griffiths, author of Sheepshagger
Everything about this novel, the stuff of it, is wondrously, awfully, beautifully alive, as teeming and seething and tragic as Andrea Dunbar's own wild work and life. My book of the year so far
- David Peace
One of the great debut novels of the century, and one of my very favourite books ever.