She left the university in 1992 because she was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. Smith moved to Edinburgh from Cambridge in 1990 and worked as a lecturer in Scottish, English and American literature at the University of Strathclyde. During her time at Cambridge, she began writing plays and as a result did not complete her doctorate. įrom 1985 to 1990 she attended Newnham College, Cambridge, studying for a PhD in American and Irish modernism. She won the University's Bobby Aitken Memorial Prize for Poetry in 1984. She studied a joint degree in English language and literature at the University of Aberdeen from 1980 to 1985, coming first in her class in 1982 and gaining a top first in Senior Honours English in 1984. Joseph's RC Primary school, then went on to Inverness High School, leaving in 1980. Her parents were working-class and she was raised in a council house in Inverness.
Smith was born in Inverness on 24 August 1962 to Ann and Donald Smith. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". One of the most extraordinary and frustrating things about Smith however is that just as you think you’re getting into the swing of things, her style alters dramatically, whether it’s into a modernist riff or a rhythmic chapter.Smith signing books at Edinburgh International Book FestivalĪli Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. She evokes summer as the ‘briefest and slipperiest of the seasons’, as something we yearn for every year, but that never quite lives up to our expectations. The final part, describing a glorious summer in 1989, shows Smith at her most masterful. The book is split into three parts, the middle revisits a character from the first book and, while important to tie the quartet together, it lags a little. The narrative subsequently switches to Sacha’s precocious younger brother, Robert, who superglues an egg timer to his sister’s hand, so that she will ‘always have time on her hands’. It’s February, just as Covid hysteria is beginning and Sacha’s friend’s relative is told ‘not to breathe’ near a woman’s son in Waitrose because she is Chinese. Summer starts with a visit to the Greenlaw family in Brighton, initially told from the perspective of Greta Thunberg-worshiping teenager, Sacha, who’s in dismay at the pace of climate change and adamant that she will never bring children into the world. While each book stands alone, the quartet is best read in quick succession to understand the overarching themes and tie together the recurring characters.
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