Getting to know you: Ash Denham MSP

What is your earliest memory?

The earliest memory I’ve got is when I was about two and a half, my sister had just been born and I remember being taken in to see her. Because I was little, they must have held me up because I remember peering over the cot to get a look at her and being very underwhelmed by my baby sister. We get on really well now, though, and are really close.

What were you like at school?

I moved around a lot so I went to primary school in Scotland and then we moved down to England and I went to primary school there too. My mum and dad had owned a kilt shop in Scotland just before we moved and I think we must have had surplus stock – this is the only rationale I can think of for what comes next – my mum had sent me to school, in England, where they didn’t have uniforms, in a kilt on my first day. So there I was with a Scottish accent, red hair and a kilt and funnily enough, I don’t really remember what happened next. I think I blanked it out. Years later, I went to sixth form college in Devon and someone came up to me and said they remembered me because I used to wear a kilt.

Did you enjoy school?

I did. I liked some subjects but I didn’t like them all across the board. I had a bad attitude where if I took against something, I didn’t want to do it anymore. I enjoyed the learning side of things, I was an avid reader and I had some really good teachers who left a lasting impression.

Who would be your dream dinner date?

I’ve been thinking about the suffragettes a lot recently because of the 100-year anniversary of women getting the vote. It challenges you because while I consider myself to be a feminist, when you hear what some of them went through, with the force feeding and the beatings etc, I’m not sure if I would be that brave. So I’d like to have dinner with them, probably some of the famous Scottish ones, like Flora Drummond or Ethel Muirhead, to find out more.

What are you scared of?

I don’t really have any phobias or fears.

What’s the worst thing anyone has said about you?

When I was a child, I got a lot of people calling me names about my hair which was annoying at the time. They used to call me Duracell if I ever wore black, and I spent one maths lesson with a boy sitting behind me calling me a red setter. 

What is your most treasured possession?

If the house was on fire, after my family, I would grab photo albums I have with pictures of my grandparents. You could put them into digital format now but I haven’t so I’d hate to lose them.

What do you dislike about your appearance?

I used to not like being a redhead so if a genie in a bottle had come along and asked if I wanted to change something about myself, I would have definitely changed to being blonde. But as the years have gone on, I’ve grown into it and I like it. I like the fact that people ascribe certain qualities to people with red hair, so being fiery, for example. I’m fine with that!

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

If you look over there [gestures to the corner of her office where there are many very nice shoes lined up], you’ll see that it’s buying shoes. I probably don’t need any more shoes; there probably comes a time when you just have enough shoes. However, I always see another pair and think, “they’re nice”. I have shoes in the car, shoes at home, shoes at work, shoes everywhere.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

As a woman, I probably wouldn’t want to live in any other time because women’s independence and ability to earn a living was restricted in the past but I would have liked to have watched some of the important historical events happening as a fly on the wall. I guess as we’ve been talking about the suffragettes, I think it would have been amazing to see what they got up to.

by Jenni Davidson

Getting to know you: Gillian Martin MSP

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I think persistence is really important and if something doesn’t work out straight away, you should learn from that and keep trying.

What skill should every person have?

Cooking is a good skill to have, especially if you are trying to eat healthily.

What’s the worst pain you’ve ever experienced?

When I was a child, I got into loads of scrapes and one time I ended up in hospital. I’d been out cycling in Biggar when I was about nine. My sister, one of her friends and I had taken out bikes and I had borrowed one which was too big for me. We decided to go right to the top of a hill and freewheel all the way down – the game was you weren’t allowed to touch the brakes. The road had just been resurfaced and I lost control and fell off. I knocked myself out but luckily, two men were coming along the hill and they took me to a nearby house and called an ambulance. I ended up with 16 stiches. Funnily enough, I don’t really like cycling now.

What is your least favourite food?

I eat most things but I don’t like low fat stuff which is usually so heavily processed. I feel they’re not being entirely honest about what’s in it.

What’s your favourite film or television programme?

I’m not a person who has favourite stuff but I generally like sci-fi movies and dramas and romantic dramas. Something I watched recently was a BBC adaptation of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I really enjoyed it and when I looked her up afterwards, I also found out that Charles Dickens was her editor. She’s a really underrated author.

What was your best holiday?

In 2012, I went to Thailand and Malaysia for five weeks. We took the kids, travelled all around and went to different islands off the beaten track. It was just amazing. In Malaysia, I remember walking to dinner and seeing fruit bats hanging in the trees. The wildlife was incredible. 

What is the last book you read?

I am terrible for starting loads of books and not reading them in synch. However, the last one I finished was Julie Bindel’s The Pimping of Prostitution because I’m doing some work on this subject myself.