Ali Smith’s Data Dystopia

In recent years Ali Smith has mastered a style that is both disconcerting and utterly humane. Her Seasonal Quartet – a novel for each season, published between 2016 and 2020 – considered the worst of contemporary British society, including rising xenophobia and the fallout of Brexit, the immigration detention system and lack of political interest in the climate crisis. Smith tackles these horrors with art: Shakespeare, Pauline Boty, Katherine Mansfield and Charlie Chaplin fill the pages of these books, lending warmth and hope to the chilly political landscape.