Description
A Skinhead Christmas is a raw, unflinching, and unexpectedly tender collection of three interconnected short stories set against the grit, cold, and contradictions of a working-class British Christmas in the early 1980s.
At its heart is the Iron Lasses—an all-girl skinhead crew bound not by ideology, but by loyalty, survival, and the fierce love that grows between people the world has already written off. Christmas Eve becomes their reckoning point, the one night where past choices, future consequences, and unspoken truths finally collide.
In “A Skingirl Christmas,” four women who once ruled their streets reunite for what they swear will be one last night together. Old scars—both carved into pub tables and buried inside their bodies—resurface as they navigate pubs, memories, and a violent debt that refuses to stay buried. The fight they walk into may be the least dangerous thing they face.
“Carol of the Concrete Angels” follows the fallout, tracing the quiet aftermath of violence and the brutal clarity that comes when the adrenaline fades. As church bells ring and snow falls on broken streets, the women confront what they’ve become—and what they might still escape. It’s a story about aging out of rebellion, about who gets to leave, and who stays behind to remember.
In “No Angels Wear Braces,” Christmas morning arrives with hangovers, bruises, and irreversible decisions. One woman runs. One tries to go straight. One carries a secret that could get her killed. And one is left standing in a city that keeps erasing its own history. As Birmingham wakes up clean and white under fresh snow, the Iron Lasses begin to understand that survival doesn’t always look like victory.
Written with sharp realism, dark humor, and deep compassion, A Skinhead Christmas refuses easy redemption or cheap nostalgia. This is not a story about hate—it’s about class, consequence, chosen family, and the cost of belonging to something that can’t last forever.
For readers who appreciate gritty social realism, subculture fiction, and emotionally honest storytelling, this collection delivers a holiday tale unlike any other—one where loyalty matters more than salvation, and Christmas doesn’t fix anything… but it does force the truth into the open.
Three stories. One night. No illusions.
