How to be both

You could say the muse of this novel is Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. The mischievous, time travelling, gender crossing spirit of history who breaks down boundaries, reconciles opposites, defies death. I read the Francesco narrative first. Francesco is based on the real life painter Francesco del Cossa......more

This book won the 2014 Goldsmiths Prize, the Novel Award in the 2014 Costa Book Awards and the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. This, very much lauded in literary circles book, is a clever tale somehow connecting a story of dealing with loss in the 20th century to the story of a struggling fe......more

Yes, yes. Well done, Ali Smith. You're very smart. If there is one thing Ali Smith's Bailey's Prize victory with her novel How To Be Bothhas proven to me, it is that even literary prizes can fall prey to the bells, whistles, and buzz words of a good media campaign. How To Be Bothwas marketed as a genr......more

I tussled for two weeks with this challenging and disappointing novel from the Best and Most Innovative Scottish Novelist Alive. Split into two separate narratives connected via the novel’s bipolar concept, the first section is quintessential Smith with its precocious teenage protagonist and her tir......more

Ali Smith’s playfully brilliant new novel makes me both excited and wary of recommending it. This gender-blending, genre-blurring story, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, bounces across centuries, tossing off profound reflections on art and grief, without getting tangled in its own postmod......more