Marcia Hutchinson was born to Windrush generation Jamaican parents in the UK in 1962. The first pupil from her comprehensive school to attend Oxford, she earned an MA in Law and worked as a lawyer before founding educational publisher Primary Colours, which she ran until 2014. Moving to Manchester in 2012, she became a community activist and was eventually elected as a Labour Councillor in 2021.

Now a full-time writer, she is an active member of the Black Writers’ Guild. Marcia co-authored The Blackbirds of St Giles (published by Simon & Schuster) and makes her solo debut with The Mercy Step.