About the Author
May 31, 2009
Ian Hough was born in 1965 in the Langworthy area of Salford and is an avid Manchester United supporter. Among many other things, his writing focuses on Manchester’s underground culture, with regard to travel, crime, drugs, music, football and fashion. He grew up during the 1970s and 80s in north Manchester, when music and fashion underwent changes whose effects are still reaching us today. In his neighbourhood peer-group, Hough was in a minority of young men who had not served a prison sentence. He remains fascinated by the evolution of Manchester sub-culture, specifically the progression from soul boys to Bowie disciples to football casuals to Madchester, a process documented by Hough in his two books, Perry Boys and Perry Boys Abroad.
He came from a relatively poor family, and his voracious appetite for literature led to a shoplifting spree lasting from childhood until his 20s. He wrote stories and novels as a child, inspired as much by this blend of purloined literary voices as by life itself. Hough left school when he was 16 years old and has since been employed in too many dirty jobs to recount, most of which involved physical labour, some of which zig-zagged back and forth across the criminal line.
In 1986, age 20, Hough began travelling as a way to escape the drugs and crime-filled world in which he lived. He spent time in Israel, Egypt, Canada, the USA, Morocco, Mexico and much of Europe, where he encountered numerous disaffected young Brits who’d taken to travel as an escape from their domestic misadventures. He’s enjoyed many pints of beer on several continents, always making sure to stick his nose in where writers should. After travelling for years in various countries, Hough settled in America and married an American. To prove to himself he could do more than shovel dirt, he earned a degree in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts. Hough continued writing while studying science, and successfully had his first book, Perry Boys, published as a result. He believes that writers should entertain their readers with realism, preferably that which has escaped cultural embellishment between events and their recording. His life among Manchester’s grafters, chancers and hooligan ravers has been recorded in his books and articles, in Manchester United’s official magazine Inside United, fanzine United We Stand, Arena Homme+, Esquire, and elsewhere. He and Kim have a daughter, Zara, aged 3 weeks and counting.
He currently lives in the United States, where he continues to write.
dear ian, just wanted to say your 2 books are bloody brilliant !!!!
im a forty somthing footy mad casual living out here in brazil
just watching my team and watching the babes in bikinis
just soccer, sex and samba and a few cold beers on match day
in full match day dress of course , just wanted to say thankyou for your work it somtimes brings a tear to my eyes with great memories and lots of laughs best wishes and thanks again best wishes and kind regards from copacabana beach
I remember that Ian Huff lad from prestwich. He was a right one I can tell ya. He once chased me up St Annes Rd with a bunch o bananas he’d pilfered from scorpios. I wouldnt look at Im the wrong way in them days but then me dad bought a bullworker an things changed I can tell yer. I went from four stone six to twenty an’ n narf stone in four weeks an knocked his bleedin’ block off. I hope he dunt read this!! But anyway hes alright now an Ive heard hes learnt to write books an all that so he must have done alright after leaving Heys. As for that bit about him working in manual labour, well I’m not havin’ it. The only manual labour I’ve seen Im do is shovelin’ fourteen meat n potato pies down Is gregory after a boat load of Holtsis. Lazy bleeder he was!!
The Pockler