“This will be the cafe and bar,” said Claire Malcolm on the ground floor of a grand, deserted building in Newcastle she hopes will become an international powerhouse of writing creativity. “We’re thinking of making it a wifi dead zone. You’ll have to pick up a book or a newspaper. Or talk to someone.”
Malcolm is giving the Guardian an exclusive tour of a forgotten 100-year-old building that is a key part of a bold project to propel north-east England to becoming a centre for writing and publishing.
