‘Alison’ tells the story of a young woman born into a quiet life in Dorset at the end of the 1950s, who escapes in her twenties to the thrumming art scene of London at the end of the 1970s. But the vehicle for her escape is an older man whose reputation as an artist and philanderer casts a shadow which will follow Alison for years. A complex love and coming of age story, it is also a meditation on female friendship and empowerment, on art, patriarchy and class. With her combina- tion of immaculate prose and stunning artwork, Lizzy Stewart immerses the reader in the precise milieu of bohemian London in the late 20th century, while at the same time conjuring a story that has resonance for all women’s lives.