Alison Layland

Alison Layland works as a British writer and translator interested in language, place, memory, and the consequences of political conflict. Someone Else’s Conflict follows Jay, an itinerant storyteller carrying memories of the 1990s fighting in Croatia, and Marilyn, a woman rebuilding her independence after a controlling relationship. Honno issued Someone Else’s Conflict in 2014. Its movement between the Yorkshire Dales, northern cities, and Jay's Balkan past allows personal trust to intersect with unresolved history. Layland studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Trinity College, Cambridge, later worked as a chartered surveyor, and became a literary translator. She was Welsh Learner of the Year in 1999 and has translated fiction from French. Someone Else’s Conflict reflects those interests by making storytelling itself part of the plot: Jay's tales can create connection, conceal responsibility, or force the past into the present.