Sherry Ashworth

Sherry Ashworth was born in 1953 and grew up living in London. She studied English Literature at St Hugh’s College in Oxford and then Medieval Studies at the University of York.

In 1977, Sherry married and moved to Manchester, where she has lived ever since. That same year she started teaching English, which she has continued to do on and off to the present day. Literature, Sherry says, is her passion… both reading and writing – and explaining it! Sherry has contributed features for the Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Express, reviewed fiction for the Times Literary Supplement, and has also had columns in the Manchester Evening News and Big Issue in the North. She teaches creative writing, gives after-dinner talks and is also a regular guest on Radio 4’s The Message.

Sherry started writing for publication in 1989. She has now written a total of eight adult novels and three young adult novels, including ‘What’s Your Problem’, which was longlisted for Children’s Book of the Year Award in 1999. All of her books are set partly or wholly in Manchester, because, as she says, “of its vibrant working-class culture, its varied ethnic communities, and also because I know it so well”.

Sherry lives in Manchester with her husband, two teenage daughters and two cats. The cats, she says, take a lively interest in everything she does, especially in the kitchen. Her daughters, however, find her less amusing!