Painting the Beauty Queens Orange

By Rhian E. Jones and Carolyn Lewis

Waterstones Welsh Book of the Month - November 2021

The ’70s wasn’t all glam rock and flares, punk and pogo-ing…

In Painting the Beauty Queens Orange, the women who lived the decade reveal what it meant to push boundaries, claim your identity, and carve out your place amidst the winter of discontent, the scorching summer of ’76 and the rise of Thatcherism.

One young woman says a forced goodbye to her newborn baby. Another grasps new opportunities and sets sail on an LPG tanker with a crew of men. A third asserts her sexual identity. A fourth sets up a kitchen table business that launches an international brand.

These stories of ambition and adventure, motherhood and marriage, are by turns heart-breaking, humorous, and honest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Honno Press
• Release date: Nov 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781912905485

Rhian E. Jones

Rhian E. Jones is a writer, critic and broadcaster from South Wales who now lives and works in London. She writes on history, politics, popular culture and the places where they intersect. She is co-editor of Red Pepper and writes for Tribune magazine. Her books include Clampdown: Pop-Cultural Wars on Class and Gender (zer0, 2013); Petticoat Heroes: Gender, Culture and Popular Protest (University of Wales Press, 2015); Triptych: Three Studies of Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible (Repeater, 2017) and the anthology of women’s music writing Under My Thumb: Songs That Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them (Repeater, 2017). Her latest book is Paint Your Town Red: How Preston Took Back Control and Your Town Can Too (Repeater, 2021).