Alison Spedding

Who is Alison Spedding?

Dr. Alison Louise Spedding is a British anthropologist and fantasy author.

Spedding studied archaeology and anthropology and later philosophy at King's College, Cambridge, receiving her BA degree in 1982. She received a PhD from the London School of Economics in 1989. She wrote a trilogy of fantasy novels, set approximately in the time of Alexander the Great. In the novels, Alexander dies, and the female protagonist, Aleizon Ailix Ayndra, goes on to fulfil Alexander's destiny.

In 1989, Spedding moved to Bolivia and lectured at San Andres University in La Paz. While there she published the academic work Wachu Wachu. Cultivo de coca e identitad en los Yungas de la Paz and Kausachun-Coca. She is the author of three novels in Spanish: Manuel y Fortunato. Una picaresca andina, El viento de la cordillera, and the sci-fi, anarcho-feminist novel De cuando en cuando Saturnina. She is also the author of a book of short stories, El tiempo, la distancia, otros amantes and the play Un gato en el tejar, the latter published under the pseudonym Alicia Céspedes Ballet. In Bolivia she became an outspoken critic of the government's policy of cracking down on peasant coca farmers. In 1998, she was arrested on drug charges, having been found with 2 kg of cannabis in her possession. Although she claimed the cannabis was for personal use, she received a 10-year sentence for trafficking. Academics widely considered the arrest was politically motivated and campaigned for her release. She was released in 2000 on payment of a surety.