Pixie

By: Jill Dawson

Published by Bloomsbury USA, 2026-05-26

'A work of genius ... a profoundly feminist book' Louise Doughty
'A funny, feminist bildungsroman ... will see her scoop up any Sarah Waters fans who haven't already discovered her' Patrick Gale
'It's thrilling to live with this book' Monique Roffey

"Pixie". I like it. "Pixie Pamela". It's a good name for me: sometimes tiny and invisible. Other times bouncing up to the ceiling to look down on everyone.

It's the turn of the twentieth century and Pamela 'Pixie' Colman Smith is a young woman of stark contradictions: plucky yet naïve, artistically gifted despite lacking classical training, fascinated by the esoteric but sceptical of the world around her.

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.

In Pixie, Jill Dawson 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.

'A rich and marvellous story' Sadie Jones
'A truly bold and vigorous and immersive writer' Christobel Kent