For the past couple of years, I have been conducting interviews with people who live in Anghiari. Some are conducted in Italian, some in English, and they are all published in both languages on this blog. I am in Anghiari at the moment, and have been doing more interviews which will be posted in due course. This interview, however, was done last year, but the editing has only just been completed. In the light of my most recent post, it was a coincidence that Merryl insisted I take photos of the library rather than her.
Belonging in Anghiari: Merryl Drakard
Merryl comes from England and has been living in Anghiari for over 30 years. She is highly respected for her voluntary work in the library, which is located in the renaissance part of town. The library is an important community centre, hosting events which include talks by locals and others from all over Italy about their writing and research. And every week Merryl runs a tandem there, in which Italian and English speakers have conversations switching between languages. I interviewed Merryl in the library, in a room with walls covered in fresoes. The interview was conducted in English, and Mirella Alessio transcribed it and translated this edited version into Italian.
I grew up in southern England, in the countryside just north of London, in a Roman town called St Albans, and I went to a girls’ high school. My father had a family business in London and he commuted; my mother did voluntary work. I had 2 older brothers… grandparents, family around, normal happy family …. I went to art school for a year, then I dropped out and went to work for a graphic designer. Then I worked free-lance for a while, in London … it was really hard.
