Poetry for the People: The Story Behind The Chubby Northerner
This is the story of Tom Stocks, better known as The Chubby Northerner - a voice for the North West arts scene.
Some stories begin with a dream.
Tom Stocks' (aka The Chubby Northener) began with a fight.
A fight for belonging. For working-class voices. For art that feels like it belongs to everyone.
I first came across Tom the way many people in Manchester have recently - by stumbling on one of his poems chalked onto the streets of the city centre. A line that stopped me, held me, made me feel something in the middle of an ordinary day.
But behind those chalk-dusted words is a story that goes far deeper. One of turbulence, graft, defiance, and a determination to keep showing up - even when the odds (and an industry) were stacked against him.
Early Years: From Bolton to the Stage
Tom grew up in Bolton. Though his childhood was marked by instability and uncertainty, his dad remained the constant - supportive, steady, and always teaching him the value of graft from an early age. As Tom recalls, his dad would often say: “You’ve always got to have a plan B. You’ve always got to earn your way.”
In Year 8, Tom’s dad nudged him into after-school clubs. Football got dull. Rugby was fine. But drama - despite being dismissed as a “pansy subject” - lit something up. First in school, then at Octagon Youth Club in Bolton, and later at Stagecoach in Horwich.
It was there he first felt the class divide. “I was never treated differently, but I knew there was a difference. The weekends they had compared to mine were very different. I wasn’t going to the theatre - I was pot washing or helping my dad in the kitchen.”
Still, he grafted. Singing, dancing, acting. Watching Oh What a Lovely War at the Octagon Theatre, Tom thought: “I want to do that.”
By GCSEs he surprised himself by passing all nine, after being predicted none. College followed, then Pendleton College in Manchester, where he studied Musical Theatre 9–5 every day. Not overly academic, but practical and creative - perfect for Tom.
Too Young, Not Ready.
But acting pulled harder. Method acting opened new doors. When drama schools came knocking, Tom auditioned - his heart set on Birmingham. He was rejected. “Too young, not ready.”
So, through clearing, he found himself in Newport, South Wales, reluctantly starting a film course at university. After three months he wanted to quit. Too academic. Too heavy. His dad told him to stick it out.
So he did.
And then came the turning point.
Tom discovered some of the great playwrights and poets: Beckett, Sarah Kane, Simon Stephens. He started asking questions in class. He threw himself into academia for the first time. “I actually enjoyed it. I was surprising myself.”
His dissertation? A deep dive into how Thatcherism shaped sitcoms of the 1980s - Only Fools and Horses, The Young Ones, Boys from the Blackstuff. It earned him a 2:1 - and, more importantly, a new love for writing and political commentary.
The Dream, Deferred
Tom still felt unfinished. He craved drama school training.
East 15 in London accepted him. “It felt like Hogwarts. I broke down on the Costa floor when I found out.”
Then reality hit. There was no government funding for an MA. The £12,000 fees were impossible. He deferred once, then twice. Worked multiple jobs. Explored career development loans.
Finally, his dad sat him down and told him the truth: it just wasn’t financially viable.
That moment could have broken him. Instead, it lit his fire.
#ActorAwareness: Fighting for the Working Class
Living in London, Tom began speaking out. He blogged, tweeted, called out the barriers working-class actors faced. He launched #ActorAwareness - a campaign to challenge elitism in the arts.
The Stage dismissed it, saying it would “never be more than a hashtag.” That only made him double down.
He organised meetings, scratch nights above pubs, and created spaces for working-class actors, writers, and directors to showcase their work.
Then came the Ian McKellen moment. At an Equity meeting, Tom gave the actor a handwritten letter and a GoFundMe link.
“The next day, £1,000 appeared from an anonymous donor. That was him, 100%. And it gave me the validation I needed to keep going.”
Soon, Spotlight offered free space in Leicester Square - the beating heart of London’s West End - for Actor Awareness workshops and shows. For years, Tom built festivals, platforms, and opportunities for hundreds of actors.
And then came The Acting Class - a documentary featuring Christopher Eccleston, Maxine Peake, Julie Hesmondhalgh, and Samuel West - shining a national spotlight on the class crisis in the UK acting industry.
“All the world’s a stage. But not all the players are equal.”
From Activist to Poet
Tom had become a producer, a campaigner, a community builder. But it was in lockdown back in the North that he picked up the pen again - this time, for poetry.
He had always hated it at school, dismissing it as “artsy farty.” But a friend suggested spoken word. Tom gave it a go.
“It just clicked. I could write how I felt, in my own voice. No rules, no barriers. That was it.”
His play On the Streets of COVID, written in rhyme, won a Royal Exchange Theatre commission in Manchester. BT Sport broadcast one of his poems for the Champions League Final. And The Chubby Northerner was born.
Then came Pavement Poetry - chalked poems across Manchester and Wigan that stopped strangers in their tracks.
One woman told Tom she read one just after her brother died, and it helped her through the grief. Others took photos to share in family WhatsApp groups. Most never knew who wrote the words - only that they needed them that day.
“Pavement Poetry is bigger than me. I’ll never know how many people it’s reached. And that’s the beauty of it.”
The Man Behind the Chalk
Today, Tom is a published poet, performer, workshop leader, and community artist working across Greater Manchester and beyond.
He’s been trolled, doubted, written off. But he’s also been celebrated, commissioned, and invited into rooms he never thought he’d enter.
He speaks openly about imposter syndrome - softening his accent, playing down his edges to fit in.
“Why wear a mask? The mask slips anyway. Better to just be you.”
His lessons?
- Graft matters. “You never know who’s in the room.”
- Resilience is everything. “Good things happen when you do good things.”
- Worth isn’t always money. It’s connection, opportunity, conversation.
- Art belongs to everyone. Always.
A Final Thought
If you’ve ever felt locked out of a room because of your accent, your bank balance, your background…
If you’ve ever been told your dream is too big, too expensive, too far from where you stand…
If you’ve ever thought poetry, art, or theatre wasn’t for “people like you”…
Tom’s story is your reminder.
You don’t need permission to create.
You don’t need to have it all figured out to belong.
You just need chalk. A voice. A willingness to keep going.
Because poetry is for the people.
And Art, Art is for everyone.
And if you’re not there yet? That’s okay. Neither is Tom.