Stripe's writing is rooted in the non-fiction novel form and explores working-class culture, untold histories of Northern England, popular music, and small-town life.
Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, her debut novel, was a fictionalised biography based on the life and work of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar.[2] A theatrical adaptation by Bradford's Freedom Studios and screenwriter Lisa Holdsworth toured across Yorkshire to critical acclaim.[3][4] A new edition of the book was reissued by Virago in 2025 and was described by David Peace as 'one of the great debut novels of the century.' [5]
Ten Thousand Apologies (2022) is her collaborative biography of cult UK band Fat White Family, co-written with singer Lias Saoudi, that traces the group's origins from working-class Huddersfield to Algeria, via sectarian Northern Ireland and the squats of south London.
Her most recent work, Base Notes: The Scents of a Life, is an olfactory memoir of working-class womanhood and complex family ties, told through a prism of 20th century perfumes.
In 2006, alongside Tony O'Neill and Ben Myers she formed possibly the first literary movement spawned via a social networking site, the Brutalists.[6] She published three chapbook collections of poetry with Blackheath Books, including Dark Corners of Land.[7]The Humber Star, her poem based on the experiences of her ancestors in 19th century Hessle Road, was performed at John Grant's North Atlantic Flux, for Hull UK City of Culture 2017.[8]
As a journalist, Stripe has written features on theatre, film, literature and music for The Quietus, Yorkshire Post and New Statesman.
Her spoken word has appeared on recordings by Smagghe & Cross and the Eccentronic Research Council.[9][10]
Reception
In 2017, writing in The Spectator, Andy Miller noted that Stripe's portrayal of Andrea Dunbar in Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile ‘mixes fiction and biography in a manner that brings to mind the work of the late Gordon Burn. [...] 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.’ [11] The Stage commented that 'Dunbar does not emerge from Stripe's fictionalisation as a victim, but as a clever, unhappy woman who deserved better.'[12]
Wendy Erskine, who reviewed Ten Thousand Apologies in the Irish Times, said that Stripe ‘is a master at giving real-life novelistic momentum and shape without anything seeming forced or schematic, and she brings sharp perspicacity to every scene.’[13] Writing in the Observer, Miranda Sawyer described the book as a 'bleak, funny and compelling biography.[...] Stripe is known for her imaginative novel/biography of Andrea Dunbar, and this book, too, though it reads pretty close to the truth, emphasises that “fact has been used to create fiction” and that people remember events differently.' [14]
Of Base Notes: The Scents of a Life, The Telegraph commented that the book 'is a story of family in all its fractures and complexities.' The Guardian noted that the memoir 'provides candid and compelling snapshots of a life, much of which is spent in survival mode.' A TLS review compared Stripe's portrayal of her mother to Joyce Chilvers in Alan Bennett's A Private Function, 'transposed to the 1980s.' [15][16][17]
Honours
Stripe was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature and the Gordon Burn Prize for her novel Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile.[18][19]Ten Thousand Apologies was shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize in 2023, recognising it as a standout work in the realm of music writing.[20]
Her PhD thesis on Andrea Dunbar, non-fiction novels and contemporary northern literature was awarded by the University of Huddersfield.[21]
She was an Anthony Burgess Fellow at Manchester University's Centre for New Writing in 2023.[22]
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