The following is the text of a speech I delivered at Manchester Histories Festival on June 7-8 2018, about the situation of Ahmed Mansoor and its relevance to the people of Manchester. I have ha...
As usual there are more literature events then we actually want or need around here, getting in the way and making a nuisance of themselves all autumn long. Everyone you know has written a book...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2016/08/manchester-live-literature-autumn-2016.html
Another day, another slightly desperate call for female performers at a literary event hits my inbox, and I'm reminded of that old saying: "women: can't live with 'em, can't convince them to get...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2016/03/manchester-writing-and-live-literature.html
These days the writerly activity in Manchester has saturated the city centre and is spreading out to The Suburbs. Do not be alarmed! It's okay. Nice people live there. If you're a nice person l...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/10/manchester-live-literature-autumn-2015.html
Summer's well and truly over, and we know this because it has stopped raining. We also know this because RAMSBOTTOM FESTIVAL is happening this weekend 18-20 September (and wonder of wonders, the ...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/09/ramsbottom-festival-2015-preview.html
Common is dead, long live Common. The old Common is no more. Yeah, it was a little beat up around the edges, but what gives? I liked the fact that the walls looked like a bizarro comic book. I...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/09/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about.html
Performances that involve food make me nervous. One of the reasons I became a food writer was a predilection for the theatre of the restaurant, the entrances and exits in the stage set of the di...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/08/review-high-tea-in-wonderland.html
I can't really remember there ever being much good comedy at MIF before. This year it's like someone there woke up and remembered that it existed. And thank god they did. The Festival's onslaug...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/08/review-invisible-dot-cabaret-manchester.html
A woman stands at the edge of the forest. No, a girl. There’s a wolf lurking about and all that the presence of a predator in the dark suggests. We’ve all heard this one before. Neck of t...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/07/review-neck-of-woods-manchester.html
Our new independent bookstore/cafe Chapter One Books is open Tues-Sat 8am-7pm, on the corner of Dale and Lever Streets in the Northern Quarter. You know how things slow down in the summe...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/07/live-literature-in-manchester-summer.html
THE LOST CARNIVAL rolled into town amid much fanfare, teasing us with tales of golden feathers and phoenixes and mythical circuses cursed to roam the earth – but we could save them! As you�...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/06/send-in-clowns-carnivals-funfairs-and.html
I can understand why someone might try to adapt Anna Karenina for the stage, but I sure as hell wouldn’t want to do it. You’ve got to cut a lot or the play would be 27 hours long. Sadly,...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/03/review-anna-karenina-royal-exchange.html
Good news for the city's readers: if all goes according to plan, we'll get two independent bookstores in Manchester this spring. Weird, huh? We haven't had one since forever, and now, suddenly, w...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/02/two-new-independent-bookshops-in.html
Don Marquis was a journalist in New York, apparently minding his own business, when a cockroach and cat invaded his column in the Evening Sun. The pair had been friends in their former lives -...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/02/a-cockroach-cat-and-tom-obedlam.html
I like gigs. More accurately, I like making plans to go to gigs. I get to roughly 25 percent of the gigs I fully intend to go to. Because, you know, my life is complicated. Also, sometimes I find...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2015/02/spring-2014-manchester-gig-planner.html
Halfway through our meal at 4244 Edge Street , I’m reminded of that Woody Allen quote: “Is sex dirty? Only if it’s done right.” If you can come to the end of a plate in this restaurant...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/09/restaurant-review-4244-edge-street.html
I’m not gonna to lie to you: I walked into Victoria Baths ready to be disappointed by HOME’s production of Romeo and Juliet . I loved their debut outing with ANU, Angel Meadow , so much ...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/09/review-romeo-and-juliet-home-at.html
Summer has gone from the Pennine Hills. Stepping out of the door in the morning, you can see your breath. The blackberries have just gone past ripe and the woods are rich with the smell of dying ...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/09/ramsbottom-festival-2014-preview.html
On the website of the Gaddings Dam Group they describe the path to Gaddings Dam as “a steep, poorly defined footpath.” This doesn’t really get across the effort involved ...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/06/wild-swim-at-gaddings-dam-todmorden.html
First Draft is good. It's a Manchester-based cabaret event, with people performing music, poetry, stories, comic monologues and short plays on the same stage. Great idea that. One format night...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/06/first-draft-and-next-draft.html
Just a quick one to say that we at writing organisation Openstories have just announced a new series of workshops aimed at emerging writers and bloggers looking to brush up on their skills and...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/05/writing-and-blogging-workshops-at.html
So. Manchester’s live literature scene, something happened to it while I was hibernating. It got awesome. Last night was Flashtag Collective’s Short Short Story Slam at Gullivers . I�...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/04/the-short-short-story-slam-and-why-you.html
My daughter was in reception when we got the flyer about football sessions on Saturday mornings in the park. I got excited; my eldest daughter loves running around outside and has a competitive...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/02/a-rant-about-girls-and-sport-in-britain.html
I am a fraud. I am misrepresenting myself, living a double life, guilty of perpetrating an online persona that is more than a little out of whack with reality. Actually, there is a gulf so b...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/01/news-flash-i-am-not-cool.html
Lots of good stuff coming up in Manchester over the next month. Here's what's on my calendar. January 22: Listen up! Radio geeks from In the Dark Manchester bring an evening of creative radio...
http://www.manchizzle.com/2014/01/good-stuff-winter-2014.html