I live in Glasgow, but I was born in Italy and lived in Anzio during the winter. I spent my summers in Mougins, France – with my grandmother Marguerite. She had a large garden, and her house was surrounded by the woods. I spent many happy days walking under the pine trees, collecting wild strawberries, and dipping into the nearby river.
I miss the sea, but luckily Glasgow is not far from some of the seaside towns. In winter it’s better – just the way I have always liked it.
My great-grandfather Jacob Heinzelmann, Marguerite’s father, was a Lithographer who had his own workshop in Cannes. There he printed commercial posters that illustrated travel by train. I have never had the chance to see any of his work, but was told by my uncles that I had the same “hand” – which may have just been a compliment.
My parents are now irrelevant, and have had virtually no input on anything good that I have done in my life, including art – which is probably rather wishy-washy as I never really took it up seriously.
After much to and fro-ing between France and Italy, I finally decided I was moving out of both, and picked Scotland as my country in 2000. I was attracted to traditional music and the West rugged coast, it was like falling in love with all that made Scotland: the light was so different from the Mediterranean, and the sound of its traditional songs in Scots Gaelic took hold of me – I have been here for 24 years and I never tire of it. I just listen, and sometimes I sing too.
I was a keen hill walker in Italy, but in Scotland I found that the hills, the grass, the moss, and the heather had so much more texture and colour. In fact, I realised that grey hues are my best friends when it comes to painting. Those really dark skies were much more interesting that our ‘boring blue sky”. In truth I wish I could have some of that now… winter is dreadful here.
I’ve now lived in Glasgow permanently since February 2000. It was not originally my chosen place, having idealised the Western Isles, then picked out Inverness as a possible place that guaranteed easy travel. But finding work was easier in Glasgow.
Some dreams will never be fulfilled, and as someone said “expectations are there to be disappointed” so all we can do is express wishes and desires, and accept what happens. I never became a singer, nor a boat mechanic, a pilot, and that was the extent of my dream jobs. My father’s pilot license lying around always made me think it might be an easy thing to obtain. The mind is its own place. The first airline travel was when I was three, and I was really good at keeping fear at bay then, thinking that those houses and roads and fields underneath were just a drawing, a map. Not real, not scary.
The other love I had as a young person was reading – everything I could get my hands on. In Italian or French, and around age 8-12 I started reading in English. With the support of my then husband I obtained a Degree in English studies in 2011, then won a Carnegie Trust bursary for a MLitt in Literature, Culture and Place, which was awarded with distinction in 2012. I was rather proud that I had written two dissertations in a language that was not my native tongue.
I also learnt, thanks to my tutor Michael Higgins, that a language is just a dialect with an army and a navy (and possibly some nuclear weapons). I had thought of learning Gaelic, but I found it too difficult, and preferred to sing it instead. However, Covid meant I did eventually take up a structured course and I am accepted in C1 (near fluent) circles nowadays. My mastery of the language is not great, and rather patchy, but I’m happy with it so far.
This is an article about me, by the lovely Mary Gladstone: