Manchester based novelist Emma Hinds whose debut novel, The Knowing is published on 18th Jan by Bedford Square.

It was inspired by real historical figures such as Maud Wagner, one of the first known female tattoo artists, Manchester gang the Scuttlers, and characters from PT Barnum's circus in the 1800s.

As research for the book, Emma did lots of research into the history of Manchester’s gangs in the 1890s, and the Angel Fields slums where many of them lived.

She says of her research: “One of my favourite things about living in Manchester is that it is a city with an evident history; in the architecture, in the canals, in the wonderful museums. Before writing ‘The Knowing,’ I wrote a play set in Manchester called 'Red Women' which was about the wives of Freidrich Engels, the communist writer who was so inspired by the life of the worker in Manchester's industrial revolution that he wrote The Conditions of the Working Class in England. His writing was foundational to my understanding of life in those times, and it was also the first place I heard about Angel Meadows, which would become the setting for ‘The Knowing.’ Engels described it as the most squalid slum in Manchester, but it had such an intriguing name that I couldn't help but research further and I was amazed to learn that what was once the worst slum in the country is now a park and apartments, the history hidden under roads and grass. I took such delight in navigating the historic city through my present-day explorations. The Manchester Central Reference Library was incredibly helpful; their exhibition on industrial local life truly revitalises the past and their archives of local history were invaluable. I am indebted to Dean Kirby's book Angel Meadows: Victorian Britain's most savage slum for helping me not only truly visualise the living conditions of some Mancunians in the 1890's, but also illuminating the truth of Mancunian gang culture in this era. I had already studied slum gang life for my research in Five Points New York and it was fascinating to examine the differences and similarities between the Dead Rabbits, the Irish gang in New York and the Scuttlers, another gang living in squalor and poverty and largely made up of Irish Immigrants. Kirby does a wonderful job of bringing the fights and battles of the Scuttlers to the present, and I modelled the character of Joe Callaghan, my Mancunian Scuttler, on the true stories he tells.” 

Emma Hinds is a young playwright and author from Manchester who is a graduate of Penguin’s WriteNow initiative. ‘The Knowing’ is her debut novel.  

More here and to order your copy VIA HERE

Published: 5-Jan-2024: (7351)