In 2015 I reached the milestone of 50 years of age, as did Manchester Business School – soon to be renamed Alliance Manchester Business School, part of Manchester University. Its brutalist building on the corner of Oxford Rd, above the (real life!) Phoenix club and a less-than-salubrious precinct, was about to undergo a major investment … Continued
So you can imagine my excitement to have recently signed a (rare, they tell me) international three book international deal with Hachette, one of the prestigious Big 5 publishing houses. It follows their opening of a Manchester office to cover The North and Scotland and I was honoured to be the very first acquisition of … Continued
After years of work by Natasha and a ton of tenacity, the very first festival took place in Bristol in October 2021 with the stated aims of “enhancing, encouraging and increasing the representation of working class writers across the country, whilst also connecting audiences, authors, readers, agents and editors.” In the end, all of that … Continued
I’d met Julie a couple of times on the Manchester arts scene but we’d never really had an in-depth chat. I knew that we shared a working-class background and were both supporters of the charity, Arts Emergency but, beyond that, I was excited to find out more. What would our stories and practices share? And … Continued