Language of my Choosing

Anne Pia is based in Edinburgh. The grandchild of Italian immigrants in Scotland, she was born in Edinburgh but raised surrounded by the food, traditions and dialect of southern Italy. Her Italian grandmother was a major influence in her life. Anne has passed on her grandmother’s sense of style, love of food and wise views of life to her three daughters: Camilla aged 36, Roberta aged 31 and Sophie-Louise aged 28.She has a long experience of writing for different audiences. A language graduate and former teacher with a recent Doctorate in Education (2008), she has been published many times in professional and academic journals, the Times Educational Supplement and the Scottish Educational Review. As a government official and HM Inspector, she has been responsible for national reports for a range of stakeholders on education in the adult learning world.Since retiring from education, her poetry has been published in Northwords Now, Poetry Scotland, New Voices Press, Lunar Poetry, The Fat Damsel and several times in London’s South Bank Poetry Magazine. Her work has also been published online in Far Off Places, Poet and Geek and Ink, Sweat & Tears. Her poem ‘Viticuso 1913 and 2005’ has been translated into Italian.She also plays the mandolin and is an active participant in musical activities throughout Scotland as a member of the Edinburgh Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra and The Poetics a small group who have played music at a number of poetry festivals around Scotland.

• Acknowledgements Author’s NoteOpenings A Complicated Relationship with MilkBacklights – Backdrop to my Life Where it All Started: Viticuso, Frosinone, ItalyThe Night Neighbours Became the Enemy The Sinking of the Arandora StarHighlights – Early Influences A Contentious MarriageThe Power of an Italian Grandmother A Family and Community in Transition An Appraisal and Matters of ChoiceWalking with and Losing Grandma Terra Straniera: An EducationSpotlights Glorious France: A Study in Self-Making A Reluctant Homecoming The Copper Kettle Chronicles On the Matter of Rooting Good Times with My Mother Religion and Sexuality The Loss of My Mother The Oak Tree The MammissimaFootlights Concluding ThoughtsViticusar The Language of Viticuso and ThereaboutsTimeline

Language of My Choosing throws fresh light on the Italian community in Scotland and gives its women their individual voice in a new way. This story resonates with the challenges of migration and immigration which we continue to face today. Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling CentreThe language of the title is that of the author’s selfrealisation, as a professional, a mother and an artist. That language, born between different cultures, communities and religions, and between public and domestic life, emerges grateful, nurturing and affirmative. Meg Bateman, PoetBold and honest, raw at times but ultimately celebratory, beautifully written and razor sharp; a wonderful blend of autobiography and social history. Ann Marie Di Mambro, Playwright and Television ScreenwriterThis is the story of a brave and clever woman who refused to deliver the lines that had been prepared for her by the Scottish Italian community that had both nurtured and wounded her. So she set about finding a language of her own choosing that would express the passions of her own restless soul. She has written a book that will challenge its readers to tear up all the scripts society has written for them and find their own words. Richard Holloway