BrexLit: the Brexit literature phenomenon: “All across the country, people felt it was the wrong thing. All across the country, people felt it was the right thing"

In autumn 2016, literally just a few months after the Brexit Referendum with its devastating 52/48% result in favour of Britain leaving the EU, the acclaimed Scottish novelist Ali Smith published Autumn (2016), a novel that was to become the first example of what is now referred to as BrexLit. According to critic Kristian Shaw, BrexLit novels “either directly respond or imaginatively allude to Britain’s exit from the EU, or engage with the subsequent socio-cultural, economic, racial or cosmopolitical consequences of Britain’s withdrawal.”