Before Joy France started to rap battle, she had a poor opinion of the art form.

“I used to think it was everything I hated,” she says.

“I believed it was a gross, offensive scene full of sexism, racism, homophobia, no holds barred.

“I thought ‘I won’t even try and change their perceptions of older women’. But I was so wrong and in the end all my stereotypes got blown out of the water.”

Joy, 63, is known as the ‘rapping granny’ thanks to her battles which have been viewed thousands of times on YouTube.

Joy’s first battle took place in Affleck's Palace two years ago and, despite her initial doubts, she has become a force to be reckoned with.

Last weekend she took on Canadian rapper Omar at a major international rap battle event - Broken Resolutions, in Dublin, Ireland.

So how did this formerly shy Salford teacher become a rap battle star?

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Joy - who often dons a panda mask for her battles - initially got into the scene through a friend who knew her as a poet.

“I wanted to do rap battle to show them that old, short, fat ladies can do rap,” she says.

She admits that her first attempt was a “terrifying” experience.

"The guy I was battling was really nice,” she says.

Watch Joy France in a rap battle (WARNING: Very strong language):

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“But I heard people saying ‘ooh look, someone brought their gran with them’.

“So I battled and I couldn’t run away from it because it was going on Youtube. The next thing I knew I had all these messages from people wanting to battle me.

“That was about two years ago, so now I’m a proper battle rapper.

“It’s a really gentle scene. It’s where young men talk about mental health and support each other.”

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Speaking ahead of last weekend’s event she said: “This is scary. It’s a big event. I’m the only person on the whole planet like me that does it. And I’m the only woman in this tournament.

“I performed last year in the same league and said I wanted to battle the biggest hardest rapper.”

Joy’s foray into rap battle was not a conventional one.

She worked for many years as a teacher and, at one time, ran a pupil referral unit.

“I became a teacher because I was so quiet,” she says.

“I was a special needs primary teacher.

“I grew in confidence but I just thought getting up on a stage was horrific. It happened a couple of times where I was blood red, stumbled over my words. It was so bad.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

“Now my mum, who is 94, says ‘what happened to my shy daughter?’

“I have gone from one extreme to the other. People find their voice but they don’t end up on the festival stages doing rap battles.”

After decades in the teaching profession, Joy made a decision in her mid fifties to try something new.

“I loved teaching,” she says. “It was hard work but I loved it.

“I have worked with some amazing people who have worked so hard to change people’s lives.

“Then I made a very strange decision in my mid 50s to leave and explore this creative thing.”

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Joy spent a year trying new things and ‘following coincidences’ which led to a range of unusual experiences - including walking a cabbage through the city centre as part of an art project.

This eventually led to her joining a poetry workshop and was asked to perform at a poetry night in Wigan with a poem about pies.

She says: “I didn’t go to any of the rehearsals, I was too nervous. So the person organising it asked me to come to her house and try there, but the words would just not come out.

“I told her I would turn up but I didn’t think I would be able to do it.

“It was the most terrifying thing I could think of doing. But I did it. And afterwards I kept thinking, ‘how brave am I, but I’m never doing anything like that again’.”

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Despite her misgivings, Joy did return to the poetry night - again and again until she eventually won a poetry slam.

“I kept saying ‘I mess about with words’ and at that point I had to start saying ‘I’m a poet’,” she says.

It was at this point that Joy was given the opportunity to take over a space on the third floor of Affleck's Palace for three months as a ‘creative in residence’.

That was initially for three months, but four years later she’s still recording and promoting creativity of all kinds at the shop - which is pointedly called ‘Not A Shop’.

“People just come in and use it and we see what happens,” she says.

“We get all sorts of people here - stressed students, retired people, foreign people - there are thousands of stories,” she says. “It’s a magical place.

“I remember looking around one day and there was a guy who had had a panic attack, a rough sleeper and an executive from the BBC who brought his daughter. And they were just three people having a chat.

“It seems to work for everyone. I think part of it is because it’s not run by any service. I don’t actually work here - it’s as if I was given a free studio.

“Some people just come in and say ‘I just want to get a hug from the room’.”