Marcia is represented by Carla Briner at the Anna Jarota Agency
The Mercy Step, her solo literary debut was pubilshed by CassavaRepublic.
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.
The Mercy Step - EVENTS
Chelsea Arts Festival - LONDON 16:00 Saatchi Gallery Sat 19th Sept
Blackwell's MANCHESTER - Tues 29th Sept (& Rozie Kelly)
The Little Bookshop Leeds - Wed 30th Sept (& Rozie Kelly)
Waterstones Harrogate - Thurs 1st Oct (& Rozie Kelly)
Lincoln Book Festival LINCOLN - 2pm Fri 2nd Oct
Waterstones York - 7pm Friday 2nd October (& Rozie Kelly )
Black British Book Festival LONDON - Sun 4th Oct
Waterstones Bradford - 7pm Wed 7th Oct BRADFORD (& Rozie Kelly)
Wimbledon Library LONDON - Thurs 15th Oct
Ilkley Literature Festival ILKLEY - Sun 18th Oct Time TBC
LDI Literary Lounge - LONDON Wed 21st October
Huddersfield Literature Festival - Thurs 22nd Oct 6:30pm
Bookhaus BRISTOL - Wed 28th Oct
Daunts Notting Hill London - Thurs 29th Oct 6:30pm (& Rosie Kelly
Oxford Writers Group 1st November 2026
Forthwrite Festival Brighton - Sat 13th March 2027
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."