Overview
Tender, exuberant and deliciously dark, Claudine Toutoungi's debut collection evokes the surreal humor of Matthew Sweeney and the candor of Emily Berry, while remaining disarmingly fresh in its blend of desire and dislocation. Roaming from metropolis to sculpture park to remote coastal town, Smoothie charts the wayward wanderings of a compelling cast of misfits – hotel eavesdroppers, city interlopers, lone wolves, phantom bird-watchers, disaffected language robots and triumphant piano-swallowers – as they grapple with the urge to communicate whatever the cost.Reviews
'The writing is so sharp and effective, not a word wasted.' - The Spectator on Radio 4 play Home Front, for which Claudine wrote multiple episodes 'Claudine Toutoungi makes us see what it is like to look; what art – the poet's and the painter's – can do.' - Judith Wilson, New Poetries BlogAuthor Biography
Claudine Toutoungi grew up in Warwickshire and studied English and French at Trinity College, Oxford University. After a Master's at Goldsmiths, she trained as an actor at LAMDA and worked as a BBC Radio Drama producer and English teacher. As a dramatist, her plays Bit Part and Slipping have been produced by The Stephen Joseph Theatre.
