Laura Canning is a scriptwriter, novelist and journalist from Belfast, Ireland. She wrote her first novel at age fifteen after reading SE Hinton’s The Outsiders.  Laura published Taste the Bright Lights in 2008 to high critical acclaim for its gritty, graphic and controversial look at the lives of modern urban teenagers.  Laura focuses mainly on realism and directness in her work, using it as a medium to tell the stories of characters who would normally be considered unlikely literary heroes. Her fiction is intended as a crossover style between the adult and young adult markets. Laura has a Master’s degree in community arts, specializing in creative writing, and is a graduate in magazine journalism from City University London.

Taste the Bright Lights (Novel) written by Laura Canning
A hard-hitting novel following 14 year old Lisa as she runs away from home and learns to survive on the streets.

Taste The Bright Lights (Screenplay based on the Novel) written by Laura Canning
A film version of Taste the Bright Lights but with more adult themes,

‘Extremely well-written...The narrative voice is particularly supple, conveying both Lisa’s adolescent defiance and her immense vulnerability.
Random House

This is the most terrifying book I've ever read. And it's for kids. It's scary because it bleeds truth. Probably it's more useful for parents to read than kids. Kids already know what a feral jungle of self-immolation teenagedom is these days. But it's still frightening to see it put down, in print, so authentically, so viscerally. It's available for download or from Lulu, but I understand it will be in shops throughout Ireland too some time soon.Just as soon as Eason's can source some lead-lined bags to store it in. Incendiary reading. Exemplary writing. I read it in one sitting and couldn't move for an hour afterwards. In fact, I'm still having nightmares about it.
JC Skinner

‘This book completely knocked me sideways... It's a page-turner and an eye-opener. It is fresh and original and speaks for the disenchanted voice of a generation much like Catcher in the Rye would have done to the youth of the 50s.’

‘A powerful book that should be on all parents' buying list. Canning's writing is that rare thing in the world of books: original and totally honest.’

‘Remarkable...firmly realistic and utterly harrowing. Should be a compulsory text on every educational curriculum.’

‘All teenagers should read it, and definitely all parents. Will become a classic.’
Amazon Reviews

 

FILM AND TELEVISON RIGHTS for Laura Canning listed properties:  AVAILABLE