This week we speak with the absolute force of nature that is author Marcia Hutchinson. From Zumba, yoga and spin to writing brilliant books. We hear a reading from her new novel The Mercy Step, plus talk about the process of co-authoring The Blackbirds of St Giles - plus an absolute lightbulb moment tip for hitting your daily word count!

Follow Marcia

Marcia Hutchinson was born to Windrush generation Jamaican parents in the UK in 1962. She was the first pupil from her comprehensive school to go to Oxford, where she gained an MA in Law. She worked as a lawyer before founding the educational publishing company Primary

Colours, which she ran until 2014. She was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to Cultural Diversity. Moving to Manchester in 2012, she became a community activist and was eventually elected as a Labour Councillor in 2021. She is now a full-time writer. She is the co-author with Kate Griffin (under the pseudonym Lila Cain) of the historical fiction novel The Blackbirds of St Giles, which was published by Simon and Schuster in January. 

The Mercy Step is her literary debut as a solo writer. Now that she has started there is no stopping her. Her next two novels are with her agent. She has two others in the works. When she is not writing Marcia teaches Zumba, yoga and spin and has a dedicated following at gyms around Manchester. When not doing all of the above she works on her garden and renovates her house.