An Evening with Marcia Hutchinson

We are excited to announce that we will be welcoming Marcia Hutchinson to the bookshop. Her debut novel The Mercy Step, a sharply witted and tender portrait of a young girl’s quiet rebellion and her refusal to be broken has just been:

• LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026
• SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARD – DISCOVER PRIZE

This is a raw and deeply affecting novel of childhood, family and survival in 1960s Britain.

‘Dark, humorous, and passionately captures the unique realities of the northern Black experience’ – The Observer

About the Book

Set in 1960s Bradford, The Mercy Step follows Mercy, a precocious young child facing a world far too big for her small body. She lives with her Windrush-generation parents in a crowded household where her mother’s attention is stretched between church and family, and her father’s temper is something to be endured or avoided.

Feeling like an outsider within her own home, Mercy retreats into books and the companionship of her beloved doll, Dolly, while learning early how to navigate the flaws and failings of the adults around her. Yet Mercy is nothing if not resilient. Armed with humour, style and fierce imagination, she quietly begins to plot her escape from a traumatic childhood.

About the Author

Marcia Hutchinson was born in the UK in 1962 to Windrush-generation Jamaican parents. She was the first pupil from her comprehensive school to attend 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, and was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to cultural diversity.

After moving to Manchester in 2012, she became a community activist and was elected as a Labour Councillor in 2021. She is now a full-time writer based in Manchester and an active member of the Black Writers’ Guild. She is the co-author, with Kate Griffin (writing as Lila Cain), of the historical novel The Blackbirds of St Giles (Simon & Schuster, 2025). The Mercy Step is her literary debut as a solo writer.

‘I laughed, I cried. Mercy’s voice will stay with me for a very long time’ – Roisin O’Donnell, Women’s Prize-longlisted author of Nesting

‘A brilliant debut. Both deeply touching and haunting, with a compelling child protagonist that’s impossible to look away from.’ — Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch

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