Pixie

All the best novelists are magicians, conjuring people from the printed page, but some, like Jill Dawson, are particular masters of the occult: bringing figures hidden from history to life … Engrossing … Dawson fleshes out a fascinating protagonist … Meticulously researched … An illuminating work of herstorical fiction … cementing Colman Smith’s legacy and underscoring Dawson’s reputation as a writer of considerable talent – Susie Mesure * FINANCIAL TIMES *
Pixie is a captivating insight into the life of the most famous occult artist you’ve never heard of – PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train
In Pixie, Jill Dawson has deftly conjured back into life a woman who is shrouded in mystery and the occult. For too long Pamela Coleman Smith has remained an anecdote to England’s rich history of magic, when indeed, via her life and drawings for the Ryder-Waite-Smith tarot deck, she played a central role … I not only rejoiced in this book, but welcome it as an important work of feminist reclamation … Pixie is a story that needed to be told. She is in good hands, here, and a work of magic has been done. It’s thrilling to live with this book – MONIQUE ROFFEY, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch
About how difference and quirkiness should be celebrated. And how we should trust our instincts. And it’s about how hard it is to be a woman artist – GEORGINA MOORE, author of The Garnett Girls
A rich and marvellous story, a delight – SADIE JONES, Costa First Novel Award-winning author of The Outcast
Jill Dawson is a truly bold and vigorous and immersive writer, a deep-diver into character and context alike. Pixie (Pamela) Colman Smith is a deliciously, irresistibly quicksilver creation, at once bumptious and insecure, brilliantly certain of her talent and determined to navigate a world that seems to offer no place for her. Dawson evokes a vividly fascinating milieu for her, conjuring up all the extraordinary characters – the shamans and poets, idealists and eccentrics and pushers at boundaries – who came into their own at the beginning of the twentieth century, the end of one era and the dawn of a new and uncertain one – CHRISTOBEL KENT, author of The Loving Husband
A funny, feminist bildungsroman, suffused with 1900s atmosphere and Sapphic steaminess that will see her scoop up any Sarah Waters fans who haven’t already discovered her. I loved it – PATRICK GALE, author of Notes From an Exhibition
A work of genius … A profoundly feminist book – LOUISE DOUGHTY, author of Apple Tree Yard
Pixie is a living, bouncing, thinking entity on the page … A fabulous writer and a wonderful book – LOUISA YOUNG, author of My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
Irresistible – a sparkling read … Pixie’s voice skitters and skates across the page – TIM PEARS, author of The Horseman
Prepare to fall head over heels in love with fin-de-siècle influencer Pixie in Jill Dawson’s passionate exploration of female creativity against the odds. Forget A Room of One’s Own. Pixie is a cry for A Life of One’s Own – SARAH MAY, author of The Rise and Fall of the Queen of Suburbia
A wonderful evocation of the life and times of a bewitching artist. Jill Dawson has a gift for turning up the unexpected card in any deck and Pixie is one of her best – ROMESH GUNESEKERA, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Reef
Jill Dawson’s marvellous character Pixie – teeny tiny and towering at the same time – paints and draws a world that reflects and refracts the extraordinary times in which she lived. A wonder – KATE PULLINGER, author of The Mistress of Nothing
Brilliant, entertaining, wild and inspiring … Highly diverting and very addictive … Ambition, fame, art, the occult – what more could you ask for? Pixie finally brings Pamela Colman Smith out from beyond the esoteric veil of magic and mystery into full colour … Jill Dawson’s writing is really storming – BIDISHA

Jill Dawson is the author of eleven novels and one poetry collection. She is also the editor of six anthologies of poetry and stories. Dawson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, has served as a Costa Judge, and has taught creative writing in various settings. She currently lives in Cambridgeshire.

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