“Storytelling is a fundamental human trait, it’s in our DNA.”
A writer first
Before she was a strategist, Alison was a novelist. Her debut, Class Act, was an Irish bestseller in 2004, selling more than ten thousand copies in its first week. Look Before You Leap and Three of a Kind followed it onto the Irish bestseller lists, stories of sisters and second chances that range well beyond Ireland.
She wrote for national newspapers and magazines in the UK and Ireland, and was interviewed on Irish national television about her books. Her plays A Fish and a Bonsai and Pistols at Dawn were staged at the Queen’s Theatre in 2006.
Her fourth novel, The Man in Manhattan, was optioned as a film in 2019 by the Motion Picture Corporation of America, and Alison wrote the script herself. She also holds a master’s degree in creative writing and new media.
Even now, with a studio to run, she comes to most projects as a writer, for film, television, animation, novels and live experiences.
Building story worlds
Alison saw early that audiences would no longer meet a story in one place. She was early to transmedia storytelling, creating Staying Single, described as the first transmedia romcom, and later writing and producing The Loedown, a web series for Harlequin Mills & Boon.
She founded storycentral, a London studio that develops intellectual property with partners in film, television, animation, publishing, gaming and theme parks. Its work happens underneath the story. It tests the narrative architecture at concept stage, then builds the story bibles and world frameworks that let a world grow across formats for years.
“Our focus remains constant: narrative integrity as the foundation for scalable IP.”storycentral
Over the years her clients and collaborators have included Walt Disney Imagineering, where she worked with emerging storytellers on design for virtual reality and 360 storytelling, as well as the BBC, AMC Networks, SundanceTV, FOX International, CBS Interactive and Warner Bros.
She helped coordinate TEDxTransmedia in Geneva and Rome, and in 2011 she was appointed chair of the StoryWorld Conference and Expo, the gathering for people working in cross platform storytelling. She co-founded and co-produced the Halloween anthology series Dark Detour, and in 2020 she brought together and led the first writers’ room for the animated series Studio Killers 404.
Stories you can walk into
For seven years Alison and storycentral worked with the Saguache County Tourism Council in Colorado. It began in 2019 as a treasure hunt across the county, with an audio driving experience and clues hidden in historic towns and museums. Many of the physical artefacts were eventually stolen, which she calls “an occupational hazard of immersive experiences!”
The lesson stuck. Visitors wanted to experience a place through story. The project grew into a portfolio of driving tours, walks, audio dramas and interactive stories. They range from a true crime drama along Highway 285 and a UFO radio call in show to a meditative walk through Crestone’s spiritual community and a history walk written with local people. Together they made the San Luis Valley itself a kind of intellectual property.
The same thinking runs through her other work. She has developed story world IP for audiences who grow up on Roblox, and she was executive producer of the virtual and augmented reality sessions at the Children’s Media Conference in 2017. She sits on the executive group of the Children’s Media Foundation.
She also teaches. Her programme Supersize Your Story helps writers shape and scale their stories, and she has given talks and workshops for brands including Walt Disney and Warner Bros on how teams can develop stories that touch people.
Lives and legends
Her recent work moves easily between invention and biography. With the screenwriter Jenny E. Kleine she writes as Elli J. Morrigan. Their epic fantasy world, The Ashen Crown, was planned from the start as a whole universe, with its own mythology and politics. The first book, Bound by Fire, appeared as a bilingual Audible Original and became an international bestseller, reaching number one in several categories of Audible Germany’s charts. The second book follows in 2026.
For Penguin Random House India she wrote Steel Man: The Jatinder Mehra Legacy, the story of an industrialist’s journey from his early career at the Steel Authority of India to leading Essar Steel.
Closer to Group Partners, she has spent months writing the life of the media pioneer Mike Yershon, at the invitation of his daughter, Nicole Yershon, including a day with Mike in the archives of the History of Advertising Trust. In her words, it is “six decades of British advertising history, told by the man who lived it.”
She is part of the Group Partners Expert Network, where her craft of finding the story inside an idea, and building it to last, sits naturally beside the visual thinking at the heart of Group Partners.
The path
From the Irish bestseller lists to story worlds built for every screen.
- 2004
Class Act, her debut novel, becomes an Irish bestseller. Look Before You Leap and Three of a Kind follow.
- 2006
Her plays A Fish and a Bonsai and Pistols at Dawn are staged at the Queen’s Theatre.
- 2010 and 2011
Helps coordinate TEDxTransmedia in Geneva and Rome.
- 2011
Appointed chair of the StoryWorld Conference and Expo.
- 2014
Creates, writes and produces The Loedown for Harlequin Mills & Boon.
- 2016
Co-founds and co-produces the Halloween anthology series Dark Detour.
- 2017
Executive producer of the virtual and augmented reality sessions at the Children’s Media Conference.
- 2019
The Man in Manhattan is optioned as a film. The Saguache County treasure hunt begins in Colorado.
- 2020
Leads the first writers’ room for the animated series Studio Killers 404.
- 2022
Solent University makes her an Honorary Doctor of Arts.
- 2025
Ashen Crown: Bound by Fire, written as Elli J. Morrigan, becomes an Audible Original bestseller.
- Now
Steel Man published by Penguin Random House India. Writing the life of Mike Yershon. Joins the Group Partners Expert Network.
In her own words
“Writing this story together, in parallel in two languages, has been one of the most unique creative journeys of my career.”
“IP has never mattered more.”
“The project proved that visitors wanted to experience destinations through story rather than simply consume information.”
“Mike was Harry Crane, the media guy. And that’s the story nobody’s told yet.”
“I am passionate about and take a great deal of pride in my work, and also in inspiring and helping develop writers and their stories worldwide.”
“Every experience was deliberately different.”