As an author, academic, and folklore fanatic working and living in northern Manchester, interviewing Hannah Priest felt like speaking to a comforting school teacher. We discussed her academic papers, her inspirations, as well as her upcoming novel, Unburied, the tale of the so-called ‘Manchester Mummy’, Hannah Beswick.
We began the interview discussing Priest’s new novel. Priest explained that the Manchester Mummy is a story that many people think they know; she came across it while researching local spooky stories for a talk she was set to give. It suddenly struck her that Hannah Beswick was a real human being, not a ghost story. Priest went on to say how this feeling, the feeling of connection to a person you are writing about, is a recurring theme throughout all the work she does.
After Covid, Priest redefined what connection to other people meant. Hannah Beswick had been to a lot of the places that she frequented, had stepped foot in churches, her family had donated to schools that Priest had been to, her grandmother had donated a wing to Chetham’s Library, which I’m sure we have all walked past at least once. Listening to her talk about connections, tenuous or not, was inspiring, if a little surreal.
We moved on to talk about the beginning of her career. Like many of us, Priest worked in small jobs – as a bartender, in hospitality, in retail. I asked her how she balanced this with her creative, writing life, and she cleverly articulated that these jobs only pave the way for bigger opportunities: “You see life, doing jobs like that! You see life, and you write better characters”.
The conversation veered towards her upbringing, and how, coming from a working class background, it can be difficult to pursue creative jobs like writing, that may – if you’re lucky – result in long term success. It’s a risk that isn’t always easy to take. However, she had a wonderful, supportive family; parents who encouraged her to nurture her creativity, a father who read to her, a grandfather who was an amazing storyteller, and a grandmother who “could actually read, knit and smoke at the same time!”
It was clear to see how grateful she was to have this upbringing, being surrounded by books, and to see writing as a worthy pursuit. In fact, when I asked her what drew her to writing, she laughed and told me that her teacher would let her write stories in primary school. If the stories were good enough, he would let her continue to write them, meaning she could skip PE.
But, apart from that, she knew she was always a daydreamer, someone who was always imagining different scenarios and worlds, and she understood the power of imagination and how to think in abstract ways. The act of writing, the actual craft of it, was something that came naturally to her from the very beginning. In fact, motivated to skip the entirety of PE, she began to work out how to write such long stories and fill all the pages she needed to. Perhaps all potential writers out there should use avoiding PE as motivation.
Talking more about her time in academia, Priest admitted that studying for her PhD was exhausting, and she didn’t always love it, but it was worth it. Listening to her rave about how wonderful it is to specialise in a unique, niche area, and have that craft be yours entirely, made me realise just how passionate she was – though she says it isn’t for the faint hearted. By reading 14th century literature, she was again enthralled by the feeling of experiencing the story just as a 14th century audience would have been. Everything is related, and echoes are everywhere.
We finished our conversation talking about her radio show, ‘Hannah’s Bookshelf’. The show is celebrating its 10th anniversary on Saturday the 14th. It has hosted a number of guests from different backgrounds, and her submission windows for short flash fiction still run every season – with the episode before Christmas having received the most submissions than any other seasonal show. From all the guests, she particularly mentioned Ramsey Campbell, a legend of British horror, who is incredibly supportive of her show and of new writers – “and definitely deserves a shoutout”.
Listening to Priest talk about her work, her education, and the steps that she took to get to this stage, only made the book seem more whimsical to me. I’m excited to get my hands on a copy and see how she brings to light the story of the Manchester Mummy, which remains an ever-relevant story in the history of the city.
