Tally’s Blood reflects aspects of the author’s own experiences and social, cultural and political contexts relating to Glasgow and the Italian immigrant experience in Scotland.
Ann Marie Di Mambro is a Scottish playwright and screenwriter.
She was born to Italian parents in Glasgow in 1950 and used many of her own experiences to shape the characters in Tally’s Blood. For example, like the character of Bridget, Di Mambro was not allowed to attend social dances.
Di Mambro has publically expressed some resentment about her Italian upbringing. This is reflected in the character of Lucia when she is irritated by Rosinella’s Italian customs.
Di Mambro said in a 2003 interview that:
the play is very personal to me. I hesitate to use the word ‘favourite’ but it is certainly the closest to home, drawing on my Italian ancestry