All articles filed in Literature

Steve Brown, 59, is telling me about the first time he was sectioned. He experienced a psychotic episode and jumped through the window of a building. During one of his early stints in hospital, he was encouraged by a nurse to go to a creative writing class to help his recovery. These days, he focuses…

When Magma shut its doors on Oldham street almost two years ago, after serving Manchester’s creatives, students and book lovers for almost 20 years, many felt as if a part of the city’s heart had been lost. Tim Bell managed the shop from 2008 and he tells me about the challenges the independent magazine industry…

Published by Verso in August, Investigative Aesthetics is a book about the theory and practices of investigation, art and politics. The book’s authors, Matthew Fuller and Eyal Weizman, argue for forms of investigating and presenting information aimed not just at reading but working the conjunction. This idea of a ‘conjunction’ is something that comes out…

Last year, Ayo launched the Salt Book Club to discuss fiction set in Greater Manchester or written by Mancunian authors. The idea was that people who weren’t from the city or wanted to learn more about it could use literature as an entry-point. We wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on discussions we had…

Andy Burnham received the news on live television that Greater Manchester’s Tier 3 funding talks with the government had collapsed.

It’s the end of an era on Oldham Street. After almost 20 years, Manchester’s beloved art bookshop has made the heart-breaking announcement that they will close from the new year.

Unsatisfied with scoring Champions League hattricks and fighting to ensure the nation’s children are properly fed, Marcus Rashford MBE has launched a new partnership with MacMillan Children’s Books to promote reading and literacy among school kids.

Anneliese Mackintosh’s novel, So Happy It Hurts, does what many before it have done, chronicling the struggles of a thirty-something woman with alcohol dependency and relationship problems. At first glance, Otilla McGregor is Manchester’s answer to The Girl on the Train’s Rachel Watson. But the novel is, in fact, incredibly real and heartfelt. McGregor is…

Andrea Ashworth’s 1998 memoir Once in a House on Fire, set in 1970s Manchester, is a moving testament to resilience, intimacy, and community in the face of horrific personal circumstances. Some critics, such as Margaret Foster, have suggested it should be compulsory reading in all inner-city schools. “Sad but inspirational” was my mother’s judgement –…