“As for Aliki - if you were to stand in the middle of Rome and say the name Sophia Loren, or Paris and say the name Catherine Deneuve or Brigitte Bardot, or L.A. and the name Marilyn Monroe, it's like standing in Athens, or anywhere in wide-flung Greece, and saying Aliki Vougiouklaki. A huge star - and so little known elsewhere in the world.”

Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist

Ali Smith is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. She is known for fiction and for work that moves across genres, with writing that often engages with social and political questions. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as “Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting.” Her novels Gliff and Glyph, released in successive years, are linked by their shared sound and by their focus on contemporary dilemmas and political concerns.