Alexander, Lynne

(US, 1943– )

Lynne Alexander is a novelist and poet. Born in New York, she has lived in Britain since 1970. She teaches creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University and Bolton Institute. Her works include Safe Houses (1985), Resonating Bodies (1988), and Adolf's Revenge (1994), in which two weird American sisters, Adolf and Pinball, in best fairy-tale tradition, curse and plot revenge for the capture of their niece. Intimate Cartographies (2000) tells the story of Magda Beard, a cartographer commissioned to map a famous avenue of beech trees—the scene of her small daughter's disappearance. The novel, structured round maps of different kinds, ingeniously and movingly charts Magda's progress back from overwhelming grief and despair to a kind of equilibrium.

Angela Carter, Jenny Diski  LG