Pete’s film

At 57 years of age, Heywood born Pete Wilky says “I’d been my own prisoner for far too long, and it’s taken a long road to find my freedom.” He’s speaking of a freedom to be himself, and he’s found this over many years, through self expression. 

Leaving a school system that he felt failed him, with no qualifications, he began to discover his personality working behind the bars of pubs in Heywood, soon becoming a well known figure throughout the town. Afterwards he entered the mod scene, where his understated self expression propelled him over fifteen years to becoming a nationally recognised figure on social media.

Pete’s childhood fascination with word smithery eventually opened a Pandora's box of writing and led him to becoming a published author. His first two books were centred about the mod scene and he then expanded into publishing his own poetry, and more recently fiction. He now has fourteen books to his name and has also become an accomplished painter.

Over the years he’s discovered his voice through creative expression and describes his current state as “very, very liberating” and states “I’m not in the world to be liked, I’m here to be me.”

Speaking of humanity's ability to create emotive art he says “It makes us the most amazing creature on earth. Creativity for me is the ability to create something from nothing and if you put your effort and time into it, you have got no obstacle in this world that you can’t overcome.”