Growing up in the countryside, he dreamt of Manchester’s music scene. How did the reality match up?
Critic Alex Niven’s latest book explores the joys and tedium of the North
Sophie Atkinson
Sophie has written cultural essays and features for the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Gawker, the Washington Post, the Guardian Long Read and Die Zeit, amongst others.
Can Keisha Thompson make weird work at Contact Theatre?
She has paused commissioning and wants to change the theatre's culture. We meet a young artistic director trying to forge her own path
The Royal Exchange’s Christmas show deserves all the praise it's getting
An unexpected music hall-inspired treat, starring Maxine Peake
The Burnham v. Rotheram DJ battle, behind the scenes at Alphaville and the joy of the campus novel
Sophie returns to your inbox in another soaring editor's edition, if she says so herself
The Royal Exchange’s The Glass Menagerie has it all — except for just one thing
A surprisingly joyful rendition of Tennessee Williams’s tragic play
The Berlin-to-Manchester pipeline; Cheshire's Booker Prize longlistee and more
An editor's edition — this time from Sophie Atkinson, featuring Levenshulme recommendations, a cultural overview and little bits
Welcome to 'Saxon Manchester' - a German city struggling with the far-right
Sophie Atkinson visits our twin city, Chemnitz, in the former East Germany. She finds a place where the recent past still casts a long shadow
Big publishers said they were coming to the North. Have they?
Noble intentions, modest advances and offices that haven't opened yet. We look at HarperCollins and Hachette's plans to de-Londonise
'I'm the guy on the edge of the dancefloor just staring'
Jeff Noon was selling books in the Deansgate Waterstones when he had a strange encounter that changed his life
Idealism, secrets and paranoia in Burnage Garden Village
The community was built on utopian principles and has a long waiting list. But it doesn't welcome prying eyes.