Alex Allison was born in London in 1991. He studied Art History (BA) at University of York and Creative Writing (MA) at University of Manchester. .
He is the author of The Art of the Body, a novel published by Dialogue Books in September 2019, a Winner of the 2020 Somerset Maugham Award and longlisted for the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize.
Greatest of All Time
Before he was everyone’s, he was mine.
Samson Kabarebe will one day be a name on everyone’s lips. At just 18 years old, it’s clear he is destined to rival Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, and Pele in the pantheon of football gods. Fans will eternally debate whether he deserves the moniker “Greatest of All Time.”
Sent on loan to a relegation-threatened Premier League team, headed up by a visionary manager, he will take the place of another striker – a homegrown star, our narrator, who has recently broken into the first team himself.
The homegrown hero should be enraged by his place being taken, but as the season progresses he finds himself drawn in by Samson’s ebullience, his talent, his petulance, and his beauty.
What starts as friendship swiftly progresses; two young men discovering themselves within the confines of professional sport. As their relationship grows, so too must our narrator grapple with the meaning of masculinity, the threat of scandal, the loneliness of a lie, the fragility and power of an athlete’s body, and the pressures on and off the pitch to be what others define as great.
Greatest of All Time is a brilliant sophomore novel that pierces the heart of a sport watched by billions. As the trickle of male sportstars coming out increases, it speaks to the questions of right-thinking fans everywhere: why can’t more players be their true self?
With the lust and physicality of Julia May Jones’ Vladimir, and the sparse prose-style of Brandon Taylor or Ottessa Moshfegh, Alex’s follow up to his Somerset Maugham Award-winning debut The Art of the Body cements his place a young author to watch.
The Art of the Body
Maintaining one person’s dignity comes nearly always at the expense of someone else’s. I have learned this for you.
Janet is caught between care work and caring for herself. Her life revolves around Sean, a talented fine art student, living and working with cerebral palsy. Both Janet and Sean are new to London and far from their families. Both are finding a means of escape through pushing their bodies to the limit.
When Sean is faced with an unexpected and deeply personal tragedy, Janet must let her guard down at last and discover what she’s prepared to fight for.
The Art of the Body is a novel about dignity and intimacy, tenderness and brutality, unafraid to explore uncommon bodies in unusual ways.