Violent attack inspired writer to turn to fiction
FROM amateur dramatics through underground music to becoming a Sunday Times top 10 bestselling author, Mandasue Heller is quite a catch for Rochdale Library Services.
Born in Warrington, Mandasue spent many of her childhood years performing in am-dram productions.
She appeared in plays and pantomimes and even sang in an Old Tyme Music Hall troupe.
At 18 she began to tour working men’s clubs with her country and western band, Missouri Sunshine.
She joined Equity during that time and regularly appeared in such television shows as Coronation Street, Brookside, Albion Market, Watching and Boys From The Blackstuff.
Mandasue moved to Manchester in the early 1980s, immersing herself in the underground music scene. She fronted an original rock band and found work sessionsinging for various blues, soul and jazz bands.
Forced by illness to temporarily quit singing in the 1990s, she turned her hand to writing, using the notorious Hulme Crescents, where she had spent her first 10 years in Manchester, as the backdrop.
Her first piece concerned a real-life incident, when a man had broken into her house in the early hours and attacked her as she lay sleeping with her 10-week-old son in her arms. He hit her on the head with a clawhammer, fracturing her skull and leaving a five inch gash.
It was the psychological impact that affected her most deeply and she hoped that writing about it would exorcise the hold it still had over her.
The finished piece was too personal for anybody else to read, but she enjoyed the process of writing, so decided to try her hand at fiction.
Her first book, The Front, was snapped up by Hodder & Stoughton.
She has written 13 books since then, and is working on the 14th.
Mother to three grown children and grandmother of three, Mandasue still lives in Manchester and spends her time between books and family commitments writing and recording music albums with her producer/musician partner, Wingrove Ward.
Mandasue will be talking about her next book, RUN, a gripping urban thriller set in Manchester’s gritty criminal underworld, at Middleton Junction Community Library on February 1, from 2pm to 3.30pm This will be followed by a book signing.
Tickets are £2, redeemable against the cost of a signed book on the day. Tickets are available from any library in the borough