Laura Del-Rivo (b. 1934) wrote her third novel,
Speedy and Queen Kong, between 1984 and 1988 (according to a note on its inside back cover), but it was only published (by Paupers’ Press in a limited edition of 200 numbered copies) in 2004, 37 years after the appearance of her second novel,
Daffodil on the Pavement(1967; republished as
Animals(1970)) – a very long gap. In those years, Del-Rivo had fallen from public view as an author, but she had continued to write and supported herself by running a clothes stall in Portobello Road market (where she can still be found on Fridays and Saturdays).
Speedy, a vivid and inventive novel, draws on her experience as a street market trader – for example, Jack Wide, one of the novel’s key characters, has “the trade habit of checking you…
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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Speedy and Queen Kong". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 September 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35058, accessed 27 November 2024.]
