Ali Smith talks to Sarah Wood

Once upon a time not very far from now, two children come home to find a line of wet red paint encircling the outside of their house. But this is no predictable fairytale. Instead, it’s the start of the electrifying new novel Gliff by Ali Smith, one of Britain’s best contemporary writers.

Smith, the winner of awards including the Orwell Prize and the Women’s Prize, often plays with form and structure in her books, and continues her innovative storytelling in Gliff, which is the first of two new interconnected novels.

In the book, the question of what the red paint means leads to a discussion of a toxic world, hostile states, resistance and, above all, how humans make meaning. Join Smith for an insight into the world of Gliff, which nods to dystopian fiction and the Kafkaesque, and is a new take on the notion of classic. Smith talks to artist and filmmaker Sarah Wood.