Margaret Visciglio (vish-eelio) is a sixth generation
Australian of mixed English, Welsh and Scottish descent.
One ancestor was Hugh Foulkes who, after fighting in the Peninsula Wars
against Napoleon came to Australia on the ship “Buckinghamshire” in
1839. He served as Captain Charles Sturt's bullock driver on the
fruitless search for the inland sea.
At the age of five, Margaret contracted polio which forced her to spend
eighteen months flat on her back. Her father taught her to read and she
read voraciously. She still does.
Her mother died of cancer when Margaret was eleven years old and Grandma
Burge moved in to care for the family. Grandma Burge was and remains a
strong influence on Margaret although she died in 1964. Many of the
characters in Margaret's writing bear Grandma Burge's imprint.
She was educated at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College at Enfield ,
South Australia and became a nurse, training at the Royal Adelaide
Hospital.In her spare time Margaret enjoys geology (she was President of
the Field Geology Club of South Australia for five years) and has
had a number of articles published in the newsletter of the
University of Adelaide-based association. She has presented many 10
minute lectures in the Mawson Theatre at the University, including
one that encompassed the geological and social history of Scotland
which covered millions of years of violence - all in ten minutes!
She's interested in astronomy (member of the Astronomical Society
of South Australia and planning a field trip shortly to the Gawler
Ranges in search of dark skies), Neighbourhood Watch (she is the
Coordinator of Valley View 2 NBW) and she continues her interest in
medicine via her membership of the Secretaries to the Medical
Profession. She retired from active work in medicine in July 2007.
Margaret now intends to reinvent herself as the Great Australian
Novelist, as predicted by Sister Nicholas of OLSH so many years ago,
and hopes to appear on the other side of the table at the next
Adelaide Writers' Week.
She is married with three children and eight grandchildren but is
not yet ready for the role of knitting tea cosies and sitting in a
rocking chair.
|
