Independent Spirits

Emma Hargrave, founder of Tindal Street Press, is selected by the Guardian as one of the few remaining arts and culture independents.

Tindal Street Press was formed out of a Birmingham writers’ group that had been meeting for 20 years in response to the metrocentric attitudes of commercial publishers. One of their members, Alan Beard, found his short story collection repeatedly turned down by mainstream companies on the grounds that no one would want to read about the West Midlands; convinced that the collection would find a readership (it was later taken up by Picador), the group decided to put it out themselves. On a shoestring grant from the Arts Council, they pledged to publish six books over the first three years. Their breakthrough came last year when Clare Morrall’s novel Astonishing Splashes of Colour was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Tindal Press is also the publisher of West Indian author Auston Clarke’s The Polished Hoe .