Alphabet

Simon Austen arrives in prison at the age of 21, intelligent but illiterate, bitter, witty, vulnerable, good-looking, and guilty of a violent crime he refuses to discuss or address. Told he has a problem with women, but contemptuous of the resources he has to offer, he plans to reinvent himself according to his own vision and methods, his first step being to learn the alphabet and his second to find women to test himself on. To his surprise there's no shortage of women prepared to engage with him, guards, staff, visitors, even - and especially - when he does eventually reveal his crime. But can the love he finds wipe away his past or is something altogether more difficult required? What does it mean to 'come to terms' with being the perpetrator of a terrible crime? What kind of life is possible afterwards? Kathy writes, 'it's hard to express exactly how, but Alphabet is in some ways a twin, or half a pair, with The Story of My Face.