After attending Oxford University Marcia worked as a lawyer before founding educational publishing company Primary Colours, which she ran until 2014. She was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to Cultural Diversity. When not writing Marcia teaches Zumba, Spin, and yoga. And when not doing any of the above she can be found despairing about the state of her garden.
The Mercy Step, her solo literary debut was pubilshed by CassavaRepublic on 22.07.25.
Under the pen name 'Lila Cain', she is also co-author with Kate Griffin of the historical fiction novel The Blackbirds of St Giles, paperback out on 25.09.25
The Mercy Step - Book Tour 2025
Manningham Library Bradford - 2pm, 26th July
The Union Mashup Hull - 7pm, 31st July
Nairn Book and Arts Festival - 3rd & 4th September
Daunt Bookshop Summertown Oxford - 7pm, 11th September
Housmans Bookshop Islington London - 7pm, 17th September
Owl Bookshop, Kentish Town London - 7pm 18th September
Chorlton Book Festival, Chorlton Library Manchester - 7pm, 23rd September
The Bookshop Mold, Wales - 7pm 1st October
Lincoln Book Festival - Lincoln Arts Centre 1pm - 4pm Workshop 4th October
Lincoln Book Festival - Lincoln Arts Centre 6pm ‘In conversation’ 4th October
House of Books & Friends, Manchester - 2pm 11th October
Una Marston Library Southwark - 2pm 18th October
Brixton Library 7pm 18th October in conversation with Paterson Joseph
Black British Book Festival - London - 19th October
Afrori Bookshop Brighton - 7pm 21st October
Highfields Library Leicester - 6.20pm 30th October
Derby Book Festival - 15th November
The Mercy Step
CassavaRepublic - 22.07.25
We follow our eponymous heroine as she is thrust into a cold and complicated world. Mercy grows, a precocious child in a life that seems too much for such a small body. Marcia expertly balances dark themes with humour as she tells Mercy's story.
Praise for the Mercy Step
'It’s dark, humorous, and passionately captures the unique realities of the northern Black experience. Powerfully told from a child’s vantage point, the storytelling is imaginative and animated, yet piercing in all the right places.'
"WOW this book has stolen my heart!! In the first ten pages, I'd already cried and laughed out loud, and I knew I was in for a hell of a read. I'm a sucker for a complicated mother-daughter story, and this one was heart-wrenching, deeply authentic, moving, a real tear-jerker. "
NUSSAIBAH YOUNIS
"The Mercy Step is a dazzling telling of the world through a child's eyes – utterly compelling, deeply moving, often funny and sometimes shocking, you will cheer Mercy all the way. An unforgettable, triumphant debut from Marcia Hutchinson"
SEAN LUSK
The character of Mercy is hilarious, but her childhood—we could say a West Indian childhood in Britain, that particular form of British upbringing—is drawn with such poignancy, so vividly it reminds me of the stories I’ve heard from my British-West Indian friends. The voice of Mercy as narrator is unforgettable; I think it will never leave me.
JASON ALLEN-PAISANT
'The character of Mercy leaps off the page and I fell in love with her from the start. This novel is heartbreaking and beautiful and funny at the same time. It's a powerful and important story by a hugely talented writer.'
DIANE ANYAKWO
'Mercy crackled with all the electricity of a story that simply could not be contained. I stayed up late and devoured it all in one sitting, utterly galvanised.'
RUSS LITTEN
"The Mercy Step is a vivid and important story, told with warmth and verve. Children are so often the unseen and unheard victims of domestic abuse, and Hutchinson speaks into this silence with incredible compassion and authenticity. I laughed, I cried. Mercy's voice will stay with me for a very long time."
ROISIN O'DONNELL
"A moving, funny and perfectly-observed slice of Black British life … has all the hallmarks of a modern classic.”
PATERSON JOSEPH
"A brilliant debut. Both deeply touching and hautning, with a compelling child protganist that's imposible to look away from."
The Blackbirds of St Giles
Simon & Schuster - paperback 25.09.25
Some things are earned. Some things are worth fighting for…
It’s 1782, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London with the world at their feet and their future assured. Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation, Daniel fought for the British in the American War of Independence and was rewarded with freedom and an inheritance, but can he claim it?
(Written with Kate Griffin under the pen name of Lila Cain)
Praise for the Blackbirds of St Giles
‘Readers are in for a true treat … Dazzling’ PATERSON JOSEPH
‘This powerful story is steeped in truth and resonates with humanity. It’s a gritty thriller and a whirlwind adventure, but most of all it’s a tale of love and hope. A beautiful, original and heart-stopping read’
JANICE HALLETT
‘I loved this brilliant book about an essential and forgotten piece of our history. Devious plots, secret pasts and forbidden futures. Gritty and thrilling, with vivid and unforgettable characters’ LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON
‘The novel Dickens didn’t write, but should have done. Simply magnificent’
SEAN LUSK
‘Equally thrilling and informative, a journey you won’t forget!’ AJ WEST
‘Full of twists and turns, peopled with characters to care about and shining a light on a little-known area of history’ FRANCES QUINN
‘Brava! A charismatic cast. A plot to stir your heart’
ESSIE FOX
‘Bringing Black Georgian London to life, this is a dark and wonderful tale of a brother and sister finding their feet in an unfriendly city’
LOUISE HARE
The Nightingale of Covent Garden
Simon & Schuster - January 2026
A sequel to The Blackbirds of St Giles, the Book of Pearl tells the story of Daniel's sister Pearl and her life in Georgian London as well as Daniel's quest to regain the fortune which was stolen from them.
(Written with Kate Griffin under the pen name of Lila Cain)