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Honno Ltd Lipstick Eyebrows.
"
Chosen for their contemporary edge in both setting and story, the collection hosts an all-female cast covering themes of travel, arrival, change, reconciliation, departures, estrangement, death, survival and the intricacies of women's lives.
""A brilliant showcase of the next wave of talent from Welsh Women writers."" Rebecca Parfitt, Commissioning Editor, Honno
""And death, like sex, isn't like it is in the movies. For one thing, there has been much more foreplay."" Lipstick Eyebrows by Naomi Paulus
""The future is Welsh, baby.""To Buy an Expensive Dream, Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh
""The projector clicked again. On the wall was a photo of Mair holding a placard defiantly, her shoulders squared to the police officer who attempted to wrench it out of her hands. In careful writing she'd printed the 'Coal Not Dole'.""Scab by Ellen Davies
""She was aware of the swing of her skirt as she went. Old woman crosses gangplank, she thought. Her reflection threw back someone she wasn't expecting. She was recently ancient, she decided. She recalled the same feeling in reverse when she was twenty and surprised at being a young woman."" Pearls Before Swine by Tracey Rhys
"
Chosen for their contemporary edge in both setting and story, the collection hosts an all-female cast covering themes of travel, arrival, change, reconciliation, departures, estrangement, death, survival and the intricacies of women's lives.
""A brilliant showcase of the next wave of talent from Welsh Women writers."" Rebecca Parfitt, Commissioning Editor, Honno
""And death, like sex, isn't like it is in the movies. For one thing, there has been much more foreplay."" Lipstick Eyebrows by Naomi Paulus
""The future is Welsh, baby.""To Buy an Expensive Dream, Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh
""The projector clicked again. On the wall was a photo of Mair holding a placard defiantly, her shoulders squared to the police officer who attempted to wrench it out of her hands. In careful writing she'd printed the 'Coal Not Dole'.""Scab by Ellen Davies
""She was aware of the swing of her skirt as she went. Old woman crosses gangplank, she thought. Her reflection threw back someone she wasn't expecting. She was recently ancient, she decided. She recalled the same feeling in reverse when she was twenty and surprised at being a young woman."" Pearls Before Swine by Tracey Rhys
"
200 pages, Paperback
Published November 16, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 16, 2023
There are so many good things in this collection of short fiction by Welsh women writers. They are assured pieces of work with intriguing narrative voices. Many of the stories describe girls/women in a state of dissatisfaction and transition - seeking transformation.
• In ‘By the Water’s Edge’ by Sylvia Rose, a thirteen-year old British girl in an unspecified Eastern European country sunbathes alone by a river bank. A young trainee policeman appears. The two swim together for hours in the icy water. That afternoon, something is awakened in the girl. “I felt it in me, some fleshy heat that travelled up and through me, collecting at my dewy navel.”
• Wales puts in an appearance in ‘To Buy an Expensive Dream’ by Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh. But this Wales is a tantalising dream of the future, not yet quite in reach. And people wake up from dreams. ‘On getting closer, you find a map of dirty dryness where the water once shimmered and shone.’
• In Kate Waddon’s ‘Wild Romances’, the unnamed woman at the centre of the story is drained by the grey monotony of family life and ‘The constant effort of being patient.’ But then she remembers a line from Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Mary Barton, ‘How do you know the wild romances of their lives?’ She imagines abandoning her relationships and responsibilities, escaping, disappearing. Should she act? Or is merely imagining such a possibility a wild enough romance?
• ‘The King of the Fairies’ by Carolyn Thomas is very definitely set in Wales. This is probably my favourite story in the collection with its glorious characters and delicious mix of the humdrum and the fantastical. ‘The birds of Rhiannon have awoken your youth, Elen.’
• The collection is exemplified by Gosia Buzzanca’s ‘Summer’s End’. It creates such a powerful sense of Kasia, the girl at the story’s centre. She is pulled in all directions by the gravity of others but creates her own reality within the mysteries of the adult world. ‘We each have a tree that we are married to, and we can spend hours like this – necking the bark, licking its irregularities, smoothing our husband’s faces with tongues.’
• In ‘Lipstick Eyebrows’ by Naomi Paulus, a woman travels through the night to be at the side of her dying grandmother. She struggles to come to terms with the reality, ‘my brain still obligingly sings along to jingles for second hand cars.’ She and her sister brush their dying Nan’s hair and do her nails in a scene of wonderful delicacy. This is rightly the book’s title story. It feels a privilege, as a reader, to be part of its narrative.
• ‘Scab’ by Ellen Davies is another story that is Welsh through and through. Caryl (‘Most people call me Carol now’) returns home after thirty years for her mother’s funeral. She left the mining community because of her involvement with a strike-breaker and her presence is still bitterly resented. The pastor at the funeral doesn’t even mention her as a member of the family. The raw, painful story is perfectly told.
• Similarly, in ‘Something about Weddings’ by Julie Primon, Claire returns briefly to the life she gave up on for a family wedding. This is a strangely sweet and redemptive story which speaks of the unexpected support we can receive from others and how our stability in life requires constant rebalancing.
• The final story is ‘Pearls Before Swine’ by Tracey Rhys. Seventy-two year old Evelyn is on a cruise in the Med and has hit it off with sixty-five year old Gio ‘a big, animated seal of a man.’ She has spent every last penny of her money on the trip, ‘To make some nice memories.’ Then Evelyn finds a sizeable and valuable pearl in an oyster. There is real freshness to this story which ends the collection on a note of possibility and hope.
These excellent stories have the tone of signature dishes, full of delicious content and skilled in their creation. I have no doubt that the nine authors in the collection are names we will be hearing a great deal of in the future.
• In ‘By the Water’s Edge’ by Sylvia Rose, a thirteen-year old British girl in an unspecified Eastern European country sunbathes alone by a river bank. A young trainee policeman appears. The two swim together for hours in the icy water. That afternoon, something is awakened in the girl. “I felt it in me, some fleshy heat that travelled up and through me, collecting at my dewy navel.”
• Wales puts in an appearance in ‘To Buy an Expensive Dream’ by Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh. But this Wales is a tantalising dream of the future, not yet quite in reach. And people wake up from dreams. ‘On getting closer, you find a map of dirty dryness where the water once shimmered and shone.’
• In Kate Waddon’s ‘Wild Romances’, the unnamed woman at the centre of the story is drained by the grey monotony of family life and ‘The constant effort of being patient.’ But then she remembers a line from Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Mary Barton, ‘How do you know the wild romances of their lives?’ She imagines abandoning her relationships and responsibilities, escaping, disappearing. Should she act? Or is merely imagining such a possibility a wild enough romance?
• ‘The King of the Fairies’ by Carolyn Thomas is very definitely set in Wales. This is probably my favourite story in the collection with its glorious characters and delicious mix of the humdrum and the fantastical. ‘The birds of Rhiannon have awoken your youth, Elen.’
• The collection is exemplified by Gosia Buzzanca’s ‘Summer’s End’. It creates such a powerful sense of Kasia, the girl at the story’s centre. She is pulled in all directions by the gravity of others but creates her own reality within the mysteries of the adult world. ‘We each have a tree that we are married to, and we can spend hours like this – necking the bark, licking its irregularities, smoothing our husband’s faces with tongues.’
• In ‘Lipstick Eyebrows’ by Naomi Paulus, a woman travels through the night to be at the side of her dying grandmother. She struggles to come to terms with the reality, ‘my brain still obligingly sings along to jingles for second hand cars.’ She and her sister brush their dying Nan’s hair and do her nails in a scene of wonderful delicacy. This is rightly the book’s title story. It feels a privilege, as a reader, to be part of its narrative.
• ‘Scab’ by Ellen Davies is another story that is Welsh through and through. Caryl (‘Most people call me Carol now’) returns home after thirty years for her mother’s funeral. She left the mining community because of her involvement with a strike-breaker and her presence is still bitterly resented. The pastor at the funeral doesn’t even mention her as a member of the family. The raw, painful story is perfectly told.
• Similarly, in ‘Something about Weddings’ by Julie Primon, Claire returns briefly to the life she gave up on for a family wedding. This is a strangely sweet and redemptive story which speaks of the unexpected support we can receive from others and how our stability in life requires constant rebalancing.
• The final story is ‘Pearls Before Swine’ by Tracey Rhys. Seventy-two year old Evelyn is on a cruise in the Med and has hit it off with sixty-five year old Gio ‘a big, animated seal of a man.’ She has spent every last penny of her money on the trip, ‘To make some nice memories.’ Then Evelyn finds a sizeable and valuable pearl in an oyster. There is real freshness to this story which ends the collection on a note of possibility and hope.
These excellent stories have the tone of signature dishes, full of delicious content and skilled in their creation. I have no doubt that the nine authors in the collection are names we will be hearing a great deal of in the future.
April 20, 2024
An interesting collection of short stories. Uneven in quality. The best stories evoked Wales rather than a mere connection to Wales. One story, "The King of the Fairies" stood out for its subtlety and evocation of childhood.
March 22, 2024
An incredible collection of Welsh female writing
People need to pay attention to the literature scene in Wales. This anthology is of such incredibly quality with such nuanced portraits of women it should be studied.
People need to pay attention to the literature scene in Wales. This anthology is of such incredibly quality with such nuanced portraits of women it should be studied.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews