Andy Spinoza came to Manchester as a student in the late 1970s and has lived in the city ever since. Working as a journalist, a publisher and a ‘PR supremo’, he has observed the vast changes wrought by local councils, national governments, quangos and institutions, as well as the people of Manchester – and Salford – themselves.Manchester unspun begins in the post-industrial gloom of a city still bearing the scars of the Second World War and ends among the shiny towers of an aspiring twenty-first-century metropolis. Spinoza recounts the city’s recent history through his dealings with council leaders Sir Richard Leese and Sir Howard Bernstein, football icons Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, David Beckham and Gary Neville, developers Fred Done, Tom Bloxham and Carol Ainscow and cultural figures such as Tony Wilson, Anna Friel, Lemn Sissay, Caroline Aherne and Mick Hucknall. The book is an insider’s tale of deals done, government and corporate decision-making, nightclubs, music and entrepreneurs.
