Chance meetings with mysterious, locked-away characters are the backbone of Ali Smith’s work, and her latest novel ‘There But For The’ is no exception. Her reading from it detailed a first meeting between the main character of the novel, Miles, and a shy Scottish girl called Anna, resulting in a series of sharp flirtatious exchanges which wonderfully carried all the slightly uneasy tension of a first encounter, mixed with her characteristically taut and light-hearted prose. Talking about the novel she referred to it as ‘twinned’ with her brilliant last book ‘The Accidental’ and this newest work carries the same fascination with the dividing lines between inside and outside that were visibly explored then.

RBS Main Theatre, 14 Aug, 11.30am (12.30pm), £10, eibfpp9.
[sj]