Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet - Softcover

Paddington, London 1966: four small girls in a playground, "and only one has a bag of sweets--and I wasn't going to be her friend unless she gave me one: Caroline." So it begins, the story of Mala ("I", "fresh from the Commonwealth"), Caroline, Janice and Bethany: four very different girls growing up--from swapping sweets to self-defence classes--in the London of the late ‘60s and ‘70s. Shyama Perera's Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet vividly evokes that London, its streets, its fashions, its songs: read the novel as an archive of ‘70s kitsch. But this is kitsch taken seriously, the pleasure which links otherwise disparate-- in some ways, desperate-- lives. "Ceylon! Such a lovely place. Why don't you go back there?": the Powellites, and the skinheads, are part of Mala's, and her mother's, everyday life--but only a part. More pressing--this is, after all, a girl's coming-of-age novel--are the glimpses of the sexual life to come: sisters with "hippy" beads and boyfriends from Carnaby Street, Bethany's (prostitute) mother who teaches "French", David Cassidy's legendary stay at the Dorchester Hotel. In other words, a world saturated by pop, measured out in magazines, gorgeous boys, and shiny white plastic boots. --Vicky Lebeau

'Lively first novel. Perera writes winningly about budding young girls, and recalls the feel-good innocence of the 19702 with brio' Independent on Sunday

A truely gorgeous book unhackneyed, genuinely touching. Read it if you have any taste at all. This is chick lit at its finest (Minx)

A wonderfully upbeat story celebrating optimism and friendship; Perera's love for the London of her childhood is completely infectious (The Express - Alex Mitchell)

'A truly gorgeous book unhackneyed, genuinely touching. Read it if you have any taste at all. This is chick lit at its finest'

Minx

A beautifully told tale of the girls' struggle to take control of their futures (Company)

'A wonderfully upbeat story celebrating optimism and friendship; Perera' s love for the London of her childhood is completely infectious'

The Express - Alex Mitchell

'A beautifully told tale of the girls' struggle to take control of their futures' Company

Lively first novel. Perera writes winningly about budding young girls, and recalls the feel-good innocence of the 19702 with brio (Independent on Sunday)

There is a warmth and tenderness towards all the characters in this optimistic, entertaining story (Sunday Mirror)

'Witty, funny, sad, nostalgic, with very believable characters. A gem' Bookseller