Ali Smith

We only have two left.

So we will be reading How to Be Both by either Ali or Ali Smith.

A-L-I.

How to Be Both? Yes.

Dual narrative novel by Scottish author.

Ooh.

I'm going to say Ali, A-L-I, Ali maybe? Ali Smith.

Think if you're Scottish.

And, like, people tell me to read stuff, and I was like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll read it." And then I just go back to reading exactly what I would wanna read anyway.

So, like, I do think it's good for me to read different things 'cause, like, when we said we'll talk about authors, I were like, "Who's my favorite author?" I'm like, "Oh, it's Ali Smith." Like, I love Ali Smith.

Oh, I wouldn't have said that one for you.

Would you not?

No.

I've even met Ali Smith.

I've got an actual signed book upstairs.

I met her in a lift in Nottingham, um, for her book sign- Like, I went to a reading and a book signing for Oh Winter, I think, when she did the seasonal quartet, and then she did a companion piece.

Yes, I'm also thinking of that Hilary Mantel quote from Paul about attaining distance from your life by writing memoir.

I like that sense that Ali Smith has of, she says, you know, once I've written my book and it's out there, it's yours, not mine.

So it's as if she's distanced herself from it because it now belongs to somebody else.

And there's a definite sort of feeling of that or trying to achieve that with what you're saying.

can i tell you about what i've been reading lately though apart from virago modern classics sure sure i

have a little bit of a smorgasbord or like a book flight oh i'm gonna pair it with a nice cheese yeah so the first is the anniversary by andrea bajani a amazing italian uh novelist and writer and journalist who i've just discovered And this is a very slim, unsettling novella about a man who severs all contact with his parents and then a decade on writes about it.

And he's basically within this book reckoning with what happened and what led him to going no contact in the first place.

And it's told in a very simple, almost matter-of-fact tone.

Yeah.

This was the joint winner of the Weatherglass Novella Prize this year, which I didn't even know existed.

So this is an interesting smaller prize, which is apparently solely judged by the Scottish novelist Ali Smith on a bit of a weird power trip, maybe.

Yeah.

But that year, judging the book, I think we did a much better job than a lot of jurors have done.

We not only shortlisted Ian McEwan for his best novel, Peter Carey for his best novel, but Andrew Miller, excellent novel, Ali Smith's first novel, and Who were the other two? David Mitchell's second novel and Rachel Seifert, a very, very talented novel with a brilliant novel.

How many novels do you read in an ordinary week? Oh, no idea.

Three, four, five, something like that.

There you go.

Ali Smith.

Showing he's a good teammate.

Shout out to Oldham.

Again, I'd been ignoring her for the first six months of that year.

And it was there sitting on wet tarpaulins, rain coursing down, helicopters above, and hearing people like Robert McFarlane or Ali Smith, these great writers and poets And it was the inaugural writers for Extinction Rebellion.

So it was the first time that writers had got together in this way.

So that's when I realized, yes, I've been sitting on the sidelines.