019 Jessica Andrews: Milk Teeth Live Special @ Storysmith Books
In this special episode of Tender Buttons — the last of Season 2 — we share a live conversation between Jessica Andrews and Samantha Walton, recorded at the launch of Jessica's new novel Milk Teeth at Storysmith Books in Bristol. Milk Teeth follows the story of a girl grows up in the north-east of England amid scarcity, precarity and a toxic culture of bodily shame, certain that she must make herself ever smaller to be loved. Years later, living in tiny rented rooms and working in noisy bars across London and Paris, she fights to create her own life. She meets someone who cracks her open and offers her a new way to experience the world. But when he invites her to join him in Barcelona, the promise of pleasure and care makes her uneasy. In the shimmering heat of the Mediterranean, she faces the possibility of a different existence, and must choose what to hold on to from her past. How do we learn to take up space? Why might we deny ourselves good things? Milk Teeth is a story of desire and the body, shame and joy. 'Milk Teeth spills over with care, truth and desire. Andrews makes the case for a life lived abundantly and ardently, full of sensation and pleasure, risk and safety' Yara Rodrigues Fowler' References Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews (Sceptre: 2022) Saltwater by Jessica Andrews (Sceptre 2019) Melissa Febos, Body Work (Manchester University Press: 2022)- and you can listen to our recent episode with Melissa here Samantha Walton Everybody Needs Beauty (Bloomsbury: 2021)- check out our previous episode with Samantha here Helene Cixous, The Laugh of the Medusa Eimear McBride, The Lesser Bohemians (Faber: 2016) Andrea Ashworth, Once in a House on Fire (Picador: 2014) Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 (Scribner: 2020)