Alison Flood

Alison Flood is New Scientist’s comment and culture editor. She has a degree in English literature from the University of Cambridge and was previously books writer for The Guardian. She is judging the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2024, chairs the British Book Awards’ Crime and Thriller Book of the Year award and has also judged the Costa first novel award and the Orwell prize for political fiction. She has contributed essays and forewords for titles including Poor Souls’ Light, a collection of stories inspired by Robert Aickman, and Literary Landscapes. She writes a monthly round-up of the best new science fiction for New Scientist, and also runs the New Scientist Book Club. She reads a lot of books.