Artful presents, in book form, four lectures given by Ali Smith at Oxford Univer
sity. Refusing to be tied down to either fiction or the essay form, Artful is na
rrated by a character who is haunted - literally - by a former lover, the writer
of a series of lectures about art and literature. Full of both the poignancy an
d humour of fiction and all the sideways insights and jaunty angles you would ex
pect from Ali Smith's criticism, it explores form, style, life, love, death, mor
tality, immortality and what art and writing can mean.
