46 C O N T E X T 1 7 4 : D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 Vox pop Mary King Who has been your greatest inspiration? My husband Micky King had more enthusiasm for historic buildings than almost anyone I have ever met, and carried out pioneering conservation work in Chester and Liverpool in the 60s and 70s. His love for his work was infectious and I certainly was not the only conservation officer to be inspired by him. I also admire Marie Curie for her tenacity: they kept telling her she was wrong, but she just kept on stirring pitchblende until she isolated radium. What has been your best idea? To take early retirement and set up the King Partnership with Micky. What would you like to have been if you had not become a conservationist? A lady of leisure. I am sure I have all the necessary skills; I just never had the opportunity. How do you reply when at a party someone asks what you do? I say I’m an architect who works with historic buildings. What is the biggest frustration in your job? People who think they know about conservation and historic buildings, but don’t. What would you like to be doing in five years’ time? Sitting in the sun drinking chilled white wine. What is your favourite building? It is always the last great building I saw, currently the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I had always dismissed Gaudi, but this is a masterpiece. It has to be seen to be believed and is a perfect example of why a record of a building can never come close to representing the real thing. The interior is all about light and space, and no photo can do it justice. Get in early, before the crowds arrive. Your favourite place? I love the area of North Wales around Porthmadog: coastal walks from the tiny harbour of Borth y Gest; views of the Snowdon range; Clough William Ellis’s house at Brondanw; and ospreys nesting in the Glaslyn Valley – these are a few of my favourite things. Your favourite book? There are lots of architectural tomes I return to time and again, but I do not want to curl up with them in front of the fire or take them to a desert island. For that, I want a Terry Pratchett, Weird Sisters perhaps, or a biting Jane Austen. If you ever start to think the rambling historic house you are surveying is haunted, a good dose of Northanger Abbey will put you right. Cnicht and the Moelwyns from the Croesor valley (Photo: Glaslyn Osprey Project)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=