A neighborhood-born celebrity agent who became a writer became a Sunday Times bestseller with her second novel, Ruthless Women.
Melanie Blake, who grew up in Heaton Chapel, Stockport, Greater Manchester, made a name for herself as a celebrity agent with soap stars and pop stars before turning to her true passion for writing.
Growing up, Melanie said she was from the working class – but always dreamed of becoming a writer despite being told by a teacher that “the only thing you will write is labels on factory boxes.”
Melanie has now become a bestselling author and has turned her first novel ‘The Thunder Girls’ into a successful stage play.
“I come from a very poor family,” said Melanie, 44, who now lives in London.
“When I was 13, I had about five different jobs. I worked at the toy stall in Stockport Market, in reddish mills, in a video store on Stockport Road, in a downtown cafe, and in a garage in Heaton Chapel – I worked literally every night because we were so poor.
“We lived on social benefits and food banks, we were really penniless – down the line. I knew I didn’t want to live like this and the only way out was to just knock myself down. “
She added that her house in Heaton Chapel had no carpet or door handles, and said this made her a “noise of glamor”.
Melanie’s mother Mary, who died in 2009, used to work as a cleaning lady, and Melanie says that watching her mother’s work also made her dream of a life outside the Heaton Chapel.
However, when Melanie attended St. Anne’s RC High School, she was told that “the only thing you will write is labels on factory boxes”.
“I was dyslexic, they put me in all the lower sentences,” she said.
“They said you can’t write and anything you write nobody will ever want to read, and the only thing anyone ever wants to read is a label you write in a factory.
“You just want someone to be nice to you, they didn’t teach me anything – I’m very angry at this school.”
Melanie also says she is one of several St. Anne’s alumni to rise to fame, including actress Sally Lindsay, the band Blossoms, and Lord of the Rings star Dominic Monaghan.
After leaving school with no graduation at the age of 16, Melanie later moved to London, where she took her long break at Top of the Pops.
First, she advised Kylie Minogue and Westlife on Top of the Pops as a camera assistant, telling the Irish band that their wind machines weren’t particularly “flattering”.
Then Melanie worked her way up from an extra at EastEnders to become one of the largest soap agents in the country.
Melanie Blake, who grew up in the Heaton Chapel.
Because of the classy character of her new book “Ruthless Women”, Melanie has been called the “Queen of the Bonkbuster” and the new Jackie Collins – a writer she first met in her hometown.
“I got my first book from Jackie Collins, which I read from the reddish library,” said Melanie.
“I was nine, way too young, but if I had never read it I would never have dreamed of living the life I was living.”
Melanie wrote the book that follows the behind-the-scenes drama of a fictional soap called “Falcon Bay” in seven weeks during the initial lockdown.
She said, “I have to work really hard to write, and yet I have written two books and a play.
“If you come from my background, I will always be working class, that will never change, no matter how much success I have because I don’t get involved.
“All I care about is the reader, if I can give the reader a brilliant time that means more to me than anything else.
Melanie Blake with Corrie star Beverly Callard.
“There are so many people out there who want to stop working class women. I think a win for me is a win for any woman who has been told no.”
Her first novel, written when she was 20 but published 20 years later, “The Thunder Girls”, about the reunion of a successful 80s girl band – 30 years after they were brutally removed from their label – became a successful stage play .
Melanie returned to Stockport when the play was performed at the Lowry in 2019.
She said, “I’ll never forget to walk around Stockport and just pick it up and think, ‘God, I’m back’ with my own play and best-selling book.
“I’m proud of Stockport or I wouldn’t come back. I stayed at the hotel across from the train station and felt at home like I had never left.
“I’m a well-made Stockport girl – when I see the viaduct I know I’m home.”
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Melanie also has a message for all children who are in a similar situation to St. Anne’s.
“I didn’t fulfill my dream until I was 40,” she said.
“If I can do it, you can do it. It’s never too late to do whatever you want. ”
‘Ruthless Women’ is published by ‘Head of Zeus’ and is available now.
