After attending Oxford Univesity 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; I dance therfore I am. And when not doing any of the above she can be found desparing about the state of her garden.
The Mercy Step, her solo literary debut which will be pubilshed by CassavaRepublic on 22nd July 2025. She is also co-author with Kate Griffin of the historical fiction novel The Blackbirds of St Giles. adn curently working on it's sequel The Nightingale of Covent Garden.
.
Events
The Bookshop Mold, Wales - 19th May 2025
Derby Book Festival (Waterstones) - 28th May 2025
Nairn Book and Arts Festival - 4th September 2025
Lincoln Book Festival - 2nd-5th October 2025 (TBC)
The Mercy Step
CassavaRepublic - 22nd July 2025
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.'
'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 Blackbirds of St Giles
Simon & Schuster - 30th January 2025
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 the city is not a place for men like Daniel and he is callously tricked and finds himself, along with his sister Pearl, in the rookeries of St Giles – a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty.
The underworld labyrinth is run by Elias, a man whose cruelty knows no bounds. But under his dangerous rule is a brotherhood of Black men, the Blackbirds of St Giles, whose intention is to set their people free.
Can Daniel use his strength, wit and the fellowship of the other Blackbirds to overthrow Elias and truly find the freedom he fought for…?
(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)