Italian Scots

I have just been given a very nice surprise present, it’s the latest album by Paolo Nutini, the Scottish singer-songwriter. This is his third album, and comes after an intermission of five years from the previous two. These Streets was his début album and released in 2006, followed by Sunny Side Up in 2009. His latest album which to me is reminiscent of the soul singers that I used to love when I went clubbing when I was a student is Caustic Love. To me his voice has echoes of Marvin Gaye, and I mean that as a compliment, not that I think he is copying, or mimicking Gaye.

I heard an interview with Nutini, and he mentioned his Italian grandfather who was such an inspiration to him, and I got to thinking about how many other successful people there are of Scottish-Italian heritage. There has been a long connection between Britain and Italian going back to Roman times of course! During the war there were many Italian prisoners of war, and after the peace, many of them stayed and had families here; even before the war, from the nineteenth century onwards there was a steady movement of Italian people from their sunny country to Britain. . Due to the Common Market, Italian people are free to come and work and settle here.

I did a little investigation and found lists of Scottish Italians, or Italian Scots, and I’ve just jotted down people I have actually heard of, and there are quite a few!