In Conversation with Jill Dawson and Midge Gillies

Creative writing tutor Dr Midge Gillies will be talking to Whitbread and Orange Prize-shortlisted novelist Jill Dawson about her new novel in this free Zoom event on Tuesday, 28 April, 2026, 7-8pm, UK time.
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Event creative with Jill Dawson and Midge Gillies

In Pixie, Jill renders the real-life figure of Pamela 'Pixie' Colman Smith, artist, publisher and illustrator of the still-iconic Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, in arrestingly vivid detail, breathing life into a story that is instantly knowable, but has, until now, eluded popular imagination.


After the deaths of her beloved mother and her troubled but well-intentioned father, Pixie finds herself in the complex, political world of fin-de-siècle art, trying to get her stunning work seen and to forge a name and a path for herself in life. Across Jamaica, Devon, London and Brooklyn, Pixie is a novel of epic proportions, a tale of the twists and turns, séances and secrets, successes and devastation, of one young woman's talent, grit and determination.

 

Jill is the author of twelve novels, one poetry collection and the editor of six anthologies of poetry and stories.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a Costa Judge and taught creative writing in many different settings.