“How could 30 years be the blink-of-the-eye it felt? It was the difference between black-and-white footage of the Second World War and David Bowie on 'Top of the Pops' singing 'Life on Mars.'”

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.