THE MERCY STEP

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 elected as a Labour Councillor in 2021. She is now a full-time writer and an active member of the Black Writers’ Guild. Her solo debut novel, The Mercy Step was longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the 2026 Discover Prize by The British Book Awards.