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
of working-class lives. These stories have teeth.
"Angela Readman's stories have a compelling intimacy and gorgeous
imagery, and are often deeply moving - highly recommended reading."
Alison Moore, author of Booker-shortlisted The Lighthouse
"Angela Readman's subtly dark stories rip the covers from the everyday.
She turns its innocents and introverts inside-out before us, meanwhile
exposing secret rituals and Chinese-whispery legends from all our
suffocating and self-contained neighbourhoods. Throughout this new
collection, the other Angela - Carter - hangs on Readman's shoulder as
she creates an eerie new folklore for fraught times. These are the
stories we always knew existed but were never brave enough to tell, even
to ourselves." Ashley Stokes, author of Gigantic, Unsung
Stories, 2021
"A poetic recontextualising of fairy tales and folklore, The Girls Are
Pretty Crocodiles manages to be both playful and dangerous, often in
the same sentence. Readman deserves to be mentioned in the same breath
as Kirsty Logan and Marina Warner, as one of the natural successors to
Angela Carter." Dan Coxon, author of Only The Broken Remain
and editor of This Dreaming Isle
