Welcome to my website
I started writing full time for a living in 2008. I brought with me a lifetime of political activity, including successes and failures, plus an extensive knowledge of football.
After spending the first 25 years of my life living in Peterlee, County Durham I had lived in England’s two biggest cities, Birmingham and London, before moving to Halifax in 2004, after spending three years in Sunderland where I helped look after my dad who had dementia.
This website gives a flavour of my most recent and current work.
I was lucky to be able to work under the direction of Kevin Gopal at the Big Issue North magazine before it closed down. I was able to write about an eclectic mix of issues and built up an extensive knowledge on numerous subjects. My works helped numerous campaigns that were important to me whilst the magazine itself, of course, aided homeless persons whilst also putting pressure on companies and government, locally and nationally, to change direction. For examples of my work go to:- https://markwrite.co.uk/social-issues/
I also began writing about football, especially about teams and players from before WWI. I have become acknowledged as a football historian as, due to my meticulous research, I have forced previous accepted inaccurate facts to be corrected. I welcome invitations to speak at meetings about the history of football.
I have had numerous football books published and also self-published works such as the highly successful co-authored hardback copy on Fred Spiksley.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50139190
See also “The Greatest Centre Half the World Has Ever Seen” – the authorised biography of Charlie Hurley.
For a number of years, I was also employed for 10 days annually by the Professional Footballers’ Association on a well-received project that unveiled plaques to some legends of the game such as Jimmy Armfield and Frank Swift, https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/blue-plaques-unveiled-to-two-of-blackpools-favourite-sons-jimmy-armfield-and-frank-swift-999145
John Aston junior, Joe Mercer https://www.mancity.com/news/club/joe-mercer-plaque-unveiled-manchester-city-63773190 and Stan Cullis.
Politically, my co-authored book on the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike was recommended by the Daily Mirror as the book to buy on the dramatic events of that year in which I stood on a picket line and served food at the Peterlee Support Kitchen. https://markwrite.co.uk/2018/07/05/images-of-the-miners-strike/
My extensive experience as an author and publisher has meant I have been able to help others get their works published.
I started writing for Landworker quarterly magazine as early as 2005 and I am still working for Unite’s rural publication over two decades later. By combining news pieces with social and political stories I really enjoy the experience.
The same was true when I worked for the UNITE Education department on a series of booklets about union heroes from the past and present including the London Dockers of 1889, Benny Rothman, Betty Tebbs, Julia Varley, Betty Gallacher, Sean McGovern and Mohammad Taj. This makes me the only person to have had works published on female, BAEM, disabled and LGBT+ trade unionists.
These can be downloaded here
Adding to this work I interviewed numerous persons for the UNITE oral history project.
Coming close to the present, I have been able – due to being fortunate to work with Francesca Platt at Bolton VideoBox and Dave Hackney at Digital Cortex – to produce a good number of short and medium length films covering football, social history and politics.
These include works on Halifax 1842, the life of Betty Tebbs, the unveiling of a plaque that I organised to honour the first black football international, and food and farming.
The links to these films and more are on my YouTube Fighting Talk site
In May 2026, the film and accompanying 24-page booklet Don’t Walk By – It didn’t stop with Ellen was released, that highlights domestic abuse and the need to tackle what is a scourge of society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um0MtKGQA58
Where funds for all these projects have been raised, it is largely across the labour and trade union movement.
As of May 2026, funds are needed to employ actors and camera assistants on the ground and in the air for a 10-minute film that will be set at the key locations of the dramatic events in Halifax 1842 when demonstrators were shot and killed in a similar fashion to what happened in Peterloo exactly 23 years earlier.
In the mid-80s when I lived in Birmingham, I was employed as a researcher for the West Midlands Economic Development Corporation (WMEDC) examining the decline of two major companies. Whilst the work on TI Investments https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-contents /uploads/2020/03/down-the-tubes.pdf was published, the one on Lucas PLC was abandoned by WMEDC after pressure from the multi-national giant.
In 2026 I am working with former reps at Marshalls on an examination of their successful campaign in 2012-13 to GET BRITAIN BUILDING that sought the then-coalition government to switch from exclusively supporting quantitative investment into directly funding building projects.
Meanwhile, my football books are again taking off. I am self-publishing a completed book on John Goodall – the first truly great professional footballer – in July 2026.
Then on 7 April, 2027 – the date when I attended my favourite football match 54 years earlier and witnessed Sunderland beating Arsenal 2-1 in the 1973 FA Cup Final semi-final – my book THE LITTLE GENERAL, an authorised biography on Sunderland’s captain BOBBY KERR on that historic day, will be released. There will follow a number of already completed works throughout 2027, 2028 and 2029.
This website also contains some of my extensive works from my time in London and which, along with other materials from the time, are now being archived by two paid researchers.
Prior to writing for a living, I was an industrial worker, student, researcher, part-time tutor and teacher, youth and community worker, publisher and funding adviser for the voluntary sector. In 2024 I also worked as a care worker on one day a week for six months and found the experience worthwhile.
I am a member of the Football Writers’ Association and NUJ, for whom I sit as an active delegate and EC member of Calderdale Trades Union Council and for whom I have co-organised numerous public events and published booklets.
Thanks for reading ……. why not participate in my https://writemark.blogspot.com
If you’d like to invite me to speak at one of your meetings then get in touch.
You can donate to any of my work at MC Metcalf sort code 60-09-27 Account number 0077358244
Mark Metcalf
a member of the NUJ and Football Writers’ Association
