What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times?u003cbru003e u003cbru003e Spring. The great connective.u003cbru003e u003cbru003e With an eye to the migrancy of story over time, and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tells the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown, Smith opens the door.u003cbru003e u003cbru003e The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story? Hope springs eternal.