Imprint
- Sceptre
- Sceptre
Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Historical fiction
By the Orange Prize and Whitbread shortlisted author of FRED AND EDIE, the riveting and vivacious tale of a 20th-century Moll Flanders.
'Crime's a man's business. So they say. Who was that small figure then, slender enough to trot along the moonlit track, swift and low, virtually invisible Who was it that covered the green signal with a glove to stop the train, while the two others took care of the driver and his mate? Could it have been one Queenie Dove, survivor of the Depression and the Blitz, not to mention any number of scrapes with the law?'
Queenie Dove is a self-proclaimed genius when it comes to thieving and escape. Daring, clever and sexy, she ducked and dived through the streets of London from the East End through Soho to Mayfair, graduating from childhood shop-lifting to more glamorous crimes in the post-war decades. So was she wicked through and through, or more sinned against than sinning Here she tells a vivacious tale of trickery and adventure, but one with more pain and heartbreak than its heroine cares to admit. Yes, luck often favoured her, but that is only part of the story.
Praise for Lucky Bunny
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Gloriously enjoyable...Queenie bursts out of these pages, longing for life, as we are drawn into her world by Dawson's terse, electric prose. I've seldom read a novel with such a sense of excitement. - Philip Hoare, Sunday Telegraph
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Jill Dawson is one of those writers so gifted and assured you relax just five words in...heroine Queenie is no angel. But she's resourceful, funny, brave and beautiful. You're on her side from that fifth word - Wendy Holden, Daily Mail
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A treat to read - John Self, Guardian
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Dawson, as ever, delves deep into her subject matter, combining fast-paced narrative with astute, piercing reflection on more complex matters - Leyla Sanai, Independent on Sunday
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She leaves us with some unforgettable images..:It is admirable, too, for the way its fizzing narrative is grounded in a cool-eyed awareness of the social and sexual injustices of the mid-20th century - Maggie Gee, Independent
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'Far more than just crime caper. An award winning poet, Dawson shrewdly uses her heroine's undeniably clever but poorly educated point of view to evocative and sometimes lyrical effect, the author's use of language pure, simple and shimmering." - The Scotsman
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Heart-rippingly painful and joyously playful. A major prize-winning contender. - Sainsbury's magazine
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Pacy and atmospheric, this tale of a girl attempting to dictate her own destiny is wickedly good - Eithne Farry, Marie Claire
Jill Dawson
Jill Dawson was born in Durham. She is the author of three novels: Trick of the Light, Magpie and Fred & Edie, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize and translated into several languages. She is also an award-winning poet and has edited five anthologies, including Wild Ways: New Stories about Women on the Road (co-edited with Margo Daly), The Virago Book of Wicked Verse and the recent Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond. She taught at Amherst College and is currently the Creative Writing Fellow at University of East Anglia in Norwich. She lives in the Fens with her partner and two sons.
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