Category: Best Blogs

Of all the stars and big names at the Manchester International Festival 2019 there is only one headline act and that’s the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the festival itself ➡️ John McGrath...

A 1996 poem by Nikki Wordsmith that demonstrates her prowess on how to use common, comparative and superlative adjectives. Sort of. ...

Is this the funniest joke in the world? Well probably not the funniest joke in the world, but probably up there as the funniest grammar joke in the world....

English teachers are some of the coolest people around so I'm sure they'll appreciate this little joke - it's funny and it's educational....

Dear You, you might well wonder what are the benefits of working with a writer? I often have thought that myself. Why would I employ me? But when you get into it and see the differences between words that serve as a function and words that are borne out of good writing,...

A Guest Post by Mike Haigh, Printroom Custodian at the Beck Isle Museum, in Pickering, Yorkshire, tells us how. The Columbian Letterpress Double Demi Revealed This hand printing press was invented by George Clymer, an engineer from Philadelphia, USA, in 1813. The design was the first all metal lever...

Or How One Adoption Played A Crucial Role In Three Generations Of My Family Kathleen’s arm rests on an old printing press at the Beck Isle Museum in Pickering, Yorkshire. She possibly worked this exact machine – a Colombian Letterpress Double Demi – when she was a young woman...

  This piece can be viewed in the Manchester Central Library archives along with hundreds of other women’s stories brought together by The Pankhurst Centre. For more information about this project see the womenswordsmcr blog. Author’s note: This unedited stream-of-consciousness prose on life so far in Manchester was written under...

  “I’ve never been in here before,” said Jules about Central Library. “It is completely overwhelming.” Despite being a resident of Manchester for eighteen years, it’s not really surprising as reading has never been one of her favourite things to do. An undiagnosed dyslexic at school in the 1980s...

When I am dried up, a desert of words, feeling what I imagine it would be like to be an old woman in a time before any of the waves of feminism whetted her appetite for life, I always find myself reaching for a book called Carol. The copy...

Dear Alexandra,
It’s been nearly three weeks since we started hacking trees off you left, right and centre. 
My heart breaks into a thousand pieces that we can’t fix the damage that has been done.
Please forgive us....

Last September a train hurtled itself along the tracks in a sorry state from Manchester to Nottingham, it took me with it and delivered me and my frayed edges into the New Art Exchange. This venue was hosting the World Event Young Artists, a showcase of of 1000 artists from...

How are you feeling David Shrigley? Fine, thanks. I just did some yoga. Tell me about your mother? She is 72 years old and used to be a computer programmer until she retired. She likes reading and is active in her local church. Tell me about your father? He...

Colin the Big Issue seller had a busy week last week. His pitch is right outside the main entrance of the Cornerhouse that has just opened its doors to David Shrigley’s new show How Are You Feeling? and the ever-affable artist designed the cover on the magazine. “I sold...

A red-stitched baseball cap hung lopsidedly on the head of a man named Jamie. He swigged a Miller High Life and said, ‘I’m going to pace myself to three or four beers an hour.’ He was the favourite to fall first. An in-house sweepstake amongst our friends had him...