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Burnt Lungs and Bitter Sweets by Virginia Betts

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We are very excited to announce the release date for Virginia Betts’ Burnt Lungs and Bitter Sweets! We have been busy with this incredible piece of lit for a while now and can’t wait to get it into the hands of our readers. That day isn’t far away now as we firmly stamp the 15th December 2024 in the diary. And of course we ask you to do the same and give this brilliant novel the love it deserves.

Urban Pigs Press have been long admirers of Betts writing and also her prolific work in a wider range of arts. When this one arrived in our inbox it was a very easy ‘yes’ for us. This book oozes with punk nostalgia and will excite fans of the hacienda era. Betts combines elements of drug addiction with a desperate and tragic love story accompanied by a soundtrack that would’ve been the envy of John Peel himself.

Burnt Lungs and Bitter Sweets comes with some incredible endorsements including indie icon Georgy Jamieson and James Dom Estic among others. All this wrapped in the delicious artwork of Cody Sexton (Anxiety Driven Graphics). Following the Don of transgressive indie lit – Sebastian Vice – is no easy task but one we feel hugely confident with considering Betts talent.

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Four punk friends; four decades: friendship survives, but will they?

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‘Seedy, Gutsy and occasionally psychotic. If you like Martin Millar’s Lux the Poet, you’ll love this!’  – Jane Savidge; PR and author; Britpop Lynchpin.

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Virginia Betts is a tutor, writer, and actor from Ipswich. She has had three books published, The Camera Obscure (supernatural and gothic-noir stories) Tourist to the Sunand That Little Voice (both poetry collections). She has also had numerous award-winning poems and stories published both in print and online journals and magazines, with her poetry and prose being performed regularly on stage and BBC Radio. Her poetry has been described as “combining the directness of modern poetry with the musicality of traditional verse.”  

Her most recent stage roles have included Kate Bush, Mary Boleyn, Elizabeth Barton, Maud Gonne and Patricia Highsmith, and she has also co-directed, produced, and written for the stage.

Burnt Lungs and Bitter Sweets is her debut novel.

Virginia is a member of The Writer’s Guild, Equity, The Poetry Society, The Wolsey Writers, The Dracula Society, and a trustee and Stanza Representative for The Suffolk Poetry Society. She writes a monthly column for the ‘Felixstowe Magazine App’ and ‘Author’s Electric’ and runs the book club at David Lloyd Gym.

virginiabetts.com (website)

@WriterGin900 (X)

ginnb900 (insta)

virginiacbetts (facebook)

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