Join me on Saturday at 2pm for more Hannah’s Bookshelf on North Manchester FM, when my guest will be the brill Brett Gregory.

Despite being raised on working class council estate in the Midlands throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Brett completed his A-Levels to then study a BA (Hons) in Writing and Literature at the University of Derby, an MA in English Literature at the University of Sheffield and a PGCE in Further and Higher Education at the University of Huddersfield. While teaching Film Studies, Cultural Studies and Media Production throughout Manchester and Salford during the 2000s, he wrote, directed and produced the music documentaries, Iceland: Beyond Sigur Ros (2010), Manchester: Beyond Oasis (2012) and Liverpool: Beyond The Beatles (2014), as well as various music videos, commercial promos and short dramas.

Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve to Exist (2022) is Brett’s debut feature film. As a contagion befalls Great Britain, and millions reflect upon the meaning of their lives, a grieving English teacher attempts to recover fragments of his shattered self as a boy, as a youth and as a man amidst the cathedrals, canals and crevices of Greater Manchester.

I’ll be talking to Brett about Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve to Exist, and about his film-making work generally. And, of course, he’ll be sharing his selections for this week’s Apocalypse Books.

Catch the show on Saturday at 2pm on 106.6FM (if you’re in the North Manchester area) or listen online (if you’re further afield).