MA alumna's birthday treat
Centre alumna Sallie Day's novel, The Palace of Strange Girls, will be published by Harper Press on 5 May. The novel is set in 1959 at the height of the 'Scrap and Shut' cotton crisis, and centres around the Singleton family and their annual holiday in Blackpool.
Jack Singleton, a foreman at a local mill, has been offered both the job of mill manager and a union post, forcing him to choose between the welfare of his fellow workers and that of his family. As the novel continues shocking discoveries are made and promises broken, and the family struggle to find their place in a shifting society.
Sallie, who undertook her MA in Creative Writing in 1999-2000 after joining a local writing group, said: "I'm delighted that The Palace of Strange Girls is to be published. My agents auctioned the novel during the summer, and it was actually sold on my 55th birthday.
"I only began writing when my youngest child left for university in 1998, and found Manchester's MA experience very positive: from the introductions to visiting agents and talks by publishers to the analysis of novels and critiques of my submissions. I learned a tremendous amount, received a great deal of support and advice and was grateful for the opportunity to return to study - 25 years after my first degree."