Award-winning novelist Jessica to appear at Sunderland's Pop Recs with new book Milk Teeth

The book, Milk Teeth, will initially be released in hardback and Kindle form. The story is concerned with young love and desire and has already gained critical praise.

Publicity for the new novel states: “A young woman struggles against a toxic culture of body shame and questions if she’s worthy of love, as she travels between the north-east of England, Paris and Barcelona.”

The book, from major publishers Hodder & Stoughton, is Jessica’s second novel and looks set to build on the success of debut novel Saltwater, which came out in 2019.

A feature in the Guardian, called Fiction to Look Out For in 2022, said: “Jessica Andrews’s first novel, Saltwater, was wonderful. The follow-up, Milk Teeth, is even better.”

Jessica, 30, is a former pupil of St Robert of Newminster in Washington, although she was brought up in Houghton. As well as being a novelist she writes for the Independent, BBC Radio 4, Guardian, Stylist and ELLE magazine, among others.

Saltwater won Jessica the Portico Prize in 2020; an award for the book which “best evokes the spirit of the North of England” open to new works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.”

She co-runs The Grapevine, a magazine which aims to give a platform to under-represented writers and co-presents literary podcast Tender Buttons.

She currently lives in Bristol and teaches creative writing at Roehampton University.

On Thursday, July 29 at 6.30pm to 8.30pm Jessica will appear at at Pop Recs on High Street West to meet readers and fellow writers.

The event will combine readings from Jessica's work with Q & A sessions. It will be co-hosted by Iain Rowan of Holmeside Writers and Helen Wilkinson of Sunderland Book Club.

Jessica is delighted to be returning to Wearside and told the Echo: “Milk Teeth is a love story which explores desire, denial, food and pleasure. The north-east shaped me and I will always be pulled back there; it feels exciting to bring my new novel home.”

The Pop Recs event will be free to attend, but places must be reserved by registering online at the Waterstone’s Sunderland website. Copies of both Milk Teeth and Saltwater will be available to buy on the evening.