Marion grew up in Germany. She moved to England in the mid-1980s.
She studied Egyptology in Germany but it was almost impossible, especially for a woman, to make a career in that field, and so she worked as a freelance translator, translating cookbooks,novels and books on spirit, body and mind. In those days it was possible to earn a decent enough living as a translator.
Though a close friend who worked at CBS Records she met and got to hang out with artists like Santana, Miles Davis, the Stray Cats and the Stranglers. This is how she met her partner David Young, the guitarist in the John Cale band. After meeting David they both moved to New York (David had already been living in the States for several years). Later David wanted to move back to the UK for personal reasons, and they settled in Camden Town.
While David was touring and working at Firehouse Studios in London, Marion continued working and looking after their only son. Marion worked for DeAgnostini as an editor, translator and proof-reader, and IPC Media, before becoming managing editor at BEAM / Nelson Thornes. By then she and David and their son had moved out of London to Peasmarsh. The local community in Camden Town had changed and was no longer attractive to the family.
In 2015 Marion and David moved to Rye, and as one of her publishing clients had gone bust, Marion decided to look for work locally. Despite being in her late 60s she managed to get a job at Johnson’s Fruiterers, packing up orders and helping with deliveries. She still works there on and off and enjoys the atmosphere and, as an avid cook, the produce.
Marion occasionally works at the Oxney vineyard picking grapes at the end of the summer, and pruning and cutting back the vines in the winter. She also worked, for a while, as a kitchen porter at Winchelsea Lodge, pre-washing all the crockery, scrubbing pots and pans and shining up the cutlery.
As an animal lover, an activist against the live transportation of animals going to slaughter and a vegan, she is also working to support her rescue cats and disabled dog – an expensive ‘hobby’ in a changed world.
Going forward, Marion hopes to complete her first cookbook in English. Since David’s death, translation work (‘a lot of spiritual stuff, which I like’) for European publishers has been added to her minimum-wage job at the fruit and veg warehouse.
Despite these hardships Marion remains positive. “This is what life is about. We live and learn…and even if you have nothing, you can give to someone who has even less…it’s part of who we should be as humans.”
You can listen in more detail to Marions’s two interviews on the HerStory website.
The HerStory project, which was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund last year, is ongoing and we are still welcoming volunteers to undertake interviews.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer please contact Ali Casey at ali.casey63@gmail.com for further information.
Image Credits: Bronwen Griffiths .