Mark speaks about his family many of whom hail from Burma (now Myanmar) as well as recent explorations of heritage that have revealed a connection to France.
His father was Anglo-Indian and with Portuguese heritage too. He believes his paternal grandmother was Welsh. He has little knowledge about his father’s family. His mother’s family was from Burma (Myanmar) and moved to the UK because they were worried about a Japanese invasion.
Mark talks about how his mum trained as a nurse, met his father in London and they lived in a house close to his grandparents, aunts and uncles. Later the family moved to Harlow.
He remembers: “I wasn’t really interested in roots. It was just mum and dad, and that was it. By the time I’d reached the age of about seven or eight, I would walk along the street in Harlow, in Upper Mealines, and at one end of the street, I’d be called ‘blackie’ and at the other end of the street, I’d be called ‘whitey’ because there were quite a mixture of people in the area. I was quite a brown child, and I don’t know how brown I am now. Do you know what I mean? So I found that amusing, but I never had any real issues with feeling as if I was an immigrant or alien in any way. I was born in England. So I’d never had any real tensions in that department as far as I know.”
Mark recalls stories his mother told him about Burma – the monsoons, playing in the rain and dancing around. His memories move onto his mother and stepfather’s fabulous cooking of exotic dishes from all around the world: “so we had two great cooks in the family there. Burmese curries were some of my favourites, I suppose, and quite simple to make. I make a few of those now.”
Mark says: “I’ve heard that we have, well, Burmese, Indian, Irish, Scottish, French, Welsh, and there’s probably – Portuguese. Did I say Portuguese? So there’s everything. We’ve got everything in the family.”
He recounts how he moved to Ilfracombe over 30 years ago and how he hasn’t experienced any racism in the town.
Mark plays guitar professionally with a band called M’Larkey. He’s also interested in listening to flute and whistle players and has made his own whistles.
He’s been doing mics for more than 20 years, starting originally at The Pier in Ilfracombe and then at the Landmark Pavilion, The Ship Aground in Mortehoe and The Grampus.
Listen to highlights from Mark’s interview below:
Highlight 1: Family Heritage || Family coming to England – [00:00:00 – 00:05:04]
Highlight 2: Food || Recipes and culture || “Food (and music) as a way to people’s hearts” [00:05:05 – 00:08:21]
Highlight 3: Subject: Performing music at The Grampus Inn || Musicians and workers from Europe at The Grampus Inn [00:08:22 – 00:13:11]