Books Are My Business: Marion Gillooly, The Imagination Library
Marion Gillooly, from Bo’ness in Scotland, is executive director of The Dollywood Foundation UK and oversees the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in the UK and Ireland.
Marion Gillooly, from Bo’ness in Scotland, is executive director of The Dollywood Foundation UK and oversees the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in the UK and Ireland.
Originally launched by the country music legend to give children in her home state of Tennessee access to books and foster a love of reading, the programme now assists in providing free books to children from birth to age five in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia.
In Cork City, the Imagination Library works with Let’s Grow Together Infant and Childhood Partnerships.
It was the opportunity of a lifetime.
I originally worked in pharmaceutical research, then when my children were young, I had a career change and went to work in children’s services in my local authority, that was nearly 20 years ago.
I have been working in children’s policy for that time and I was working for another charity when I got an email from a recruitment agency to say Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was looking for a new executive director for the UK and Ireland.
When Dolly Parton’s name pops up in your inbox, you think, ‘oh my goodness, what is that about?’. I was intrigued, and I had a few discussions with the search agency.
The process continued and here I am. I’ve been in the post for five years now. It has been amazing.
I first met Dolly in 2019. When she comes over here, I get the opportunity to go and say hello.
She’s such a warm, genuine, down-to-earth person.
She really is all of the things that people say about her.
She’s passionate about what she does, super-smart, and works incredibly hard.
She is just a really inspirational person.
Dolly’s own experience is well-documented — her father wasn’t able to read and she felt that stopped him from achieving his dreams in life.
So she has made it her mission to make sure children don’t grow up in homes without books.
The whole concept of the Imagination Library is about babies and very young children, because if you can get them reading and loving books at that age, then that starts them off for a lifetime of being readers.
The model works through partnerships with local organisations.
It is coordinated globally and delivered locally and we couldn’t do it without local partners who invest and fundraise to pay for the books.
The Dollywood Foundation pays for all of the core costs of the charity.
It’s such a joyful thing working with local authorities and different organisations on something that is so positive.
The feedback from families hearing about the impact that this has on children and their communities is incredible.
Almost every week we get photos or letters — children write to Dolly a lot and we pass those letters on.
We also hear touching stories from parents who say it has been such a blessing to be given books.
Because we depend on local communities working with us, we are often approached by parents who have heard about the Imagination Library and if there isn’t a programme in their local area, we have to say sorry, we can’t help you.
That’s what we're working towards, having more coverage, so we have to say no less often.
, by the Irish author Anne Griffin. I read it on holiday last year and I was in floods of tears on the beach.
Another book that moved me was by Anthony Doerr. It stayed with me for a long time after I had read it.
The third book is a memoir, by Catherine Simpson, who grew up on a Lancashire farm. It’s a mix of the story of her childhood and her life and also the story of her younger sister, who suffered from depression. The stories of her upbringing just really resonated with me as she grew up in the ’70s. It's full of wry humour, and it’s searingly honest.
by Eric Carle; by Kathryn Cave and Chris Riddell; and by Katie Cleminson.
