THERE is a pile of books in Katy Lironi’s living room, behind which her daughter Matilda is scribbling furiously.

“I’ve changed the names of our children in the book, they wanted to keep a bit of distance from it all,” says Katy, adding with a laugh: “Not Matilda, though.

“She is not interested in keeping her distance. She’s loving it. She’s been signing books for weeks.”

Matilda in the Middle, which is officially launched at Mono in Glasgow on Thursday (October 25) is Katy’s memoir about music and family.

Katy with her daughter MatildaKaty with her daughter Matilda (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

It grew out of lockdown blog - while she was jotting down her thoughts about parenting in a pandemic, Katy found herself writing about her own life, and the role music has played in it.

Katy has sung with The Fizzbombs and The Secret Goldfish; she is married to musician and record producer Douglas MacIntyre; her daughter, Amelia, is one-half of rising stars Quad 90, who will be supporting BMX Bandits at Celtic Connections next year; and her brother Stephen and sister-in-law Clare Grogan founded Altered Images.

“It was like a side one, side two kind of thing,” she says. “I thought they were two separate entities, but Douglas was reading it and he said, you know, I think this is all part of the same story.”

Katy LironiKaty Lironi (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

As well as being a funny and honest account of the joy and chaos of life with a child who has Down’s Syndrome, Matilda in the Middle does not shy away from the tougher times in Katy’s life.

She writes movingly about her experience of miscarriage and her conflicts and collaborations with medical professionals and education authorities. Throughout it all, music is a constant.

“Being able to access music has always been a big part of helping me to feel like myself, to feel 'normal',” says Katy, who grew up in East Kilbride.

“There were always lots of 78s lying around, my mum and dad went to traditional jazz clubs, my brothers listened to 70s glam stuff, reggae nights at the Olympia Ballroom in East Kilbride...”

She nods: “So my influences were a real mish-mash. But I hadn’t ever considered becoming a singer.”

Moving to Edinburgh to study publishing at Napier College, now University, changed her life.

“I’d planned to go to Strathclyde Uni, but didn’t get in, so I was forced to leave home and really push myself out of my comfort zone,” she explains. “It was serendipity, where I ended up, because that’s how I got involved with the whole C86 indie scene.”

C86 became shorthand for a bunch of melodic pop indie bands of the 1980s, which in Scotland included The Pastels, The Shop Assistants and The Fizzbombs, which comprised Katy, Margarita Vasquez-Ponte, Angus McPake and Ann Donald.

They enjoyed weekly gigs, recorded a single, graced the centre pages of the NME, supported the likes of Tallulah Gosh, the Vaselines and BMX Bandits, and recorded a couple of Janice Long BBC Radio 1 Sessions.

“It was all very DIY, we didn’t really know what we were doing, we just did it,” says Katy, smiling. “We didn’t want to be famous – no-one had thought that far ahead.

“When I look back at it all now, there really was a lot of interest –if we’d have moved down to London, maybe our lives would have gone in an entirely different direction.”

The book includes an endorsement by comedian and TV presenter Mel Giedroyc, with whom Katy has been friends since they met in Italy in the late 80s, where they wrote a “truly terrible rap” together.

“It was deriding all things machismo and designer,” says Katy, with a slight groan. “We thought it was hilarious.

“I'm so pleased Mel is coming to the launch, she is so encouraging.”

Katy is looking forward to the launch with mixed feelings.

“It is a little weird, the book finally being ‘out there’,” she says, nervously. “I’m actually quite a private person so it’s bizarre this piece of writing I’ve kept hidden under the bed for so long is now going to be read by other people.”

Katy and Douglas founded the musical phenomenon SandFest, a series of gigs which has raised thousands of pounds for Down’s Syndrome charities. Katy now also works for Down’s Syndrome Scotland.

The book also includes details of the many musical and theatrical groups Matilda attends.

“Matilda entered our lives 20 years ago, and we had no experience of learning disabilities - it was a world we did not know at all,” she says.

“These groups are part of her story, as a performer, and as part of our family. They have also meant she has sung in beautiful theatres in Inverness, Stirling, Greenock …”

Katy adds: “I know that without these charities things would have been much harder for Matilda.”