Modern Manchester Unveiled: Exploring the Cultural Tapestry at The International Anthony Burgess Foundation

Join Manchester University Press for a very special panel discussion, event as we explore the cultural tapestry that make up modern Manchester with local authors who have written extensively about the city.

The panellists will discuss how modern Manchester has developed over the last three decades, what the cultural and literary landscape looks like now, how it’s influenced their writing about the city and what the future of Manchester could look like.

This event is hosted by Manchester University Press in partnership with Oxford Road Corridor.

About the panellists

Andy Spinoza moved to Manchester from London at eighteen and never looked back. An early member of the Haçienda, he reported on the city’s music scene for the NME and The Face. He founded alternative magazine City Life in 1983 and spent ten years as a gossip columnist for the Manchester Evening News. As boss of his own PR company, he promoted the dynamic post-industrial Manchester throughout the 2000s and 2010s. He is the author of Manchester unspun: How a city got high on music. He lives in Stockport.

David Scott is a father, author, poet, musician and BBC presenter. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and Politiken. He’s the author of Mancunians: Where do I start, where do we begin? He was born, raised and lives in Manchester.

Hayley Flynn is the creator of Skyliner: Alternative Tours of Manchester. She has an MA in Place Writing from MMU’s Manchester Writing School, and is studying for an MSc in Place Management and Leadership, alongside working part-time as a Placemaker. She’s also a freelance journalist, and has written for publications such as The Guardian, Caught By the River, Untapped Cities, Corridor8 & Elsewhere Journal. She is currently writing a history of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, publishing in 2025.