Ali Smith - Artful

The Telegraph“Dealing with loss in a humerous, sly fashion...” These meditations, though wayward, repay careful attention. One finishes them beguiled. Smith performs a kind of magic – witty and wise, she makes a charming, elusive companion who, when she leaves, makes you yearn for her disruptive presence...

Financial Times“A charming balancing act...” Artful will be enjoyed by those who don’t mind what Smith calls “cleverism,” but part of its charm is its self-knowing artifice. It's fun to imagine Smith reading to solemn scholars, confounding them with audacious, acrobatic, heartbreaking pro

New Statesman“Ingenious...” This is a joyful and optimistic paean to the healing powers of art, an invitation to “make use of short daylight”, as Mansfield once wrote. It will be entertaining reading for anyone interested in the art of writing, and also of living, well...

Guardian“A strange, clammy power...” An all-singing, all-dancing exploration of how thought feeds off words and words nourish thought, launching you on daydreams through thickets of words, splashing through phrases as if they were puddles... A seductive case for imagination's power...

Publishers Weekly“Contemplative, electrifying, transformative...” Through riveting reflections on the limitations and limitlessness of stories, Smith considers four aspects of the endeavor of creation... testifying with clarity and wit to the immutable necessity for art...

The Independent“Maddening and totally seductive...” And then there's the voice! Smart, allusive, informal, playful, audacious, it's dense with ideas but sustaining always a heady pace. It is inspired, inspiring, exhausting... (It's true. I thing I'm in love with Ali Smith. Yes, I'll cope.)...

Scotsman“A sparky, charm-laded little book...” Smith is one of those happy anomalies to whom “hard” ­literature is fun, and might actually aid the management of hectic modern life... sharing her use of affected innocence as a route into intellectual inquiry, Artful is exuberant and clever...