Congratulations to Angela Readman on the publication of her new short story collection, The Girls are Pretty Crocodiles by Valley Press.
Booker shortlisted novelist, Alison Moore says: “Angela Readman’s stories have a compelling intimacy and gorgeous imagery, and are often deeply moving – highly recommended reading.”
From the publisher’s website: “Bold, beautiful and spiky, Angela Readman’s stories are both magical and real. Following her acclaimed debut Don’t Try This at Home, in this new collection, she approaches the fairy tale with a scalpel. The Girls are Pretty Crocodiles reads like a love letter to girlhood and a ransom note to all the fairy tales we have been told. In her prize-winning work ‘The Story Never Told’, an illiterate woman sells fairy tales for a book she knows will never have her name on the cover. In ‘What’s Inside a Girl’, a class takes lessons on dating invisible girls.
“Dark, funny and surreal, these stories explore, challenge and ultimately transform the traditional fairy tale narrative. Women learn to be origami, climb into swan skins, feed wolves, flip burgers and snog kelpies. In dazzling prose that remains matter-of-fact, these tales take to task the happy endings we have been sold.
“Otherworldly, yet down to earth, The Girls are Pretty Crocodiles discovers the hidden voice in the stories we know and reveals the magic within working-class lives. These stories have teeth.”
The Girls are Pretty Crocodiles is the fourth book Angela has had published since she was shortlisted for the 2012 Bristol Short Story Prize. It follows a story collection, Don’t Try This at Home, a poetry collection, The Book of Tides, and a novel, Something Like Breathing. We look forward to many more publications from Angela.
Angela’s 2012 BSSP shortlisted story, Yoki and the Toy Surprise, is available in our volume 5 anthology published by Tangent Books.