Local Face: Emilia di Girolamo

Emilia di Girolamo was born in her parents’ home in Nash lee Road on 10th March 1971. She now realises this is no longer a common experience. Most children of the seventies were not born at home, especially not in a home built by their father. Romeo di Girolamo bought the plot, designed the house and built it with the help of his father and an architect friend! Both his daughters were born there. Neither can keep away now they are adults.

The di Girolamo girls, Selina and Emilia, are lucky enough to have had a childhood of playing in the fields where they invented great mysteries inspired by books they had read to them by their mother, Megan. Emilia particularly remembers the story of “Chocky” after which they thought they could communicate telepathically. Enid Blyton led them to see signs in everything around them. They were convinced that spies were everywhere.

The girls hatched out plots in the farmer’s shed and looked for clues in the way the cows were behaving. They had crazy imaginations and this included the trains which pounded by. It’s changed now, of course. Chiltern Railways provides the trains instead of British Rail but most of the noise is of cars whizzing on the by pass.

From Nash lee Road it was just as easy to attend school in Little Kingshill as in Wendover so Emilia’s idyllic primary education involved driving in the Chiltern Hills. Secondary school in Aylesbury was a trial although Miss Read’s history lessons were fascinating.

Emilia felt that she did not fit in with the academic aspirations of the school and it was not able to offer her development in areas which interested her. Subsequently, She was determined to study drama and was given a place at Middlesex University ! from where she graduated in 1993 with a I first class honours degree in Performing Arts and is continuing her studies to this day. It also led directly to Emilia becoming a writer.

Emilia is very clear about the influences which have brought her to write both plays and books. Not surprisingly, her first play, Committed, drew very strongly on childhood feelings and friends although all the locations have been fictionalised.

On her second birthday a murder happened in the locality and Emilia’s childhood was haunted by fear of the person who committed the crime. She always had a desperate need to know how something so terrible could happen. What would make people act that way? She continues to respect the feelings of all those involved, many of I whom still live in the area.

This “need to know” situation led directly to a fascination with criminal behaviour and rehabilitation. She has worked in prison for the past five years using rehabilitative arts based techniques to help offenders address their behaviour and modify it. This is the basis of the PhD for which she is now studying part-time and at the root of all her writing. She is convinced that if she had not grown up in Nash Lee Road she would have taken a different path. At least one exoffender has benefited from contact with Emilia, although she insists that others have also been influential with him. He has just graduated from university with a 2:1 degree and has thereby stopped his inevitable recidivism.

Emilia is also delighted with the success of her plays. Her first, 1000 Fine Lines, had a run in London and she has been invited to join the Royal National Theatre’s stable of new writers. But her first love is novels. Last October her first novel, Freaky, was published and caused some controversy in the Aylesbury area as some of the content naturally drew on local background. However there was national acclaim: “crammed with attitude” The Times; “di Girolamo is a crafty storyteller” Time Out. Freaky has been optioned to be a six-part TV series and is currently in development.

This is a particularly busy time for Emilia because she is just completing her PhD. The plan is for it to be submitted for award in the summer. Furthermore, her second book, The Time of our Lies is nearly completed and she is working on a new play Cell Spin. Emilia leads a very hectic London life. Most of her childhood friends and neighbours have moved away from Wendover but she returns frequently to visit her artist parents and sister’s family She says that in Wendover, “I feel at home, secure and warm. I love the village – it is so very pretty and a world away from London. I’d love to come back and have a cottage. Who knows – maybe one day!”