Marion Fellows MP: 'My father always said to me, "think about your vote"'

What’s your earliest memory? 
It was at the Carnegie Library in Ayr when I was wee enough to stand up on the bottom shelf. The smell of books still takes me back to that. My mother was a great reader and I was taken to the library as soon as I could walk.

Are you a big reader now?
I love trashy historical novels and probably “better grade” ones. I like to read to escape. I like Georgette Heyer – when you start her novels, you know how they’re going to end but it’s how she gets her characters there. I discovered years after I started reading her that she was quite highly thought of, but I just love them. 

What were you like at school? 
Swotty. I did well in primary and I was encouraged by my parents. They both left school at 14 and one went down the pit and the other to the factory. They absolutely wanted their children to have the best education possible. They even bought me a set of encyclopaedias, The World of the Children. That would have been a sacrifice.

I became dux medallist at primary and refused to go to grammar school after P7. I went to Belmont Academy in Ayr and on to Carrick Academy, which is where I met [former SNP MP] Roger Mullin. He was my sports captain in fifth and sixth year. I wasn’t doctor material but I got to Heriot-Watt University to study business and commerce and switched to accounting and finance. 

Were you the first in your family to go to university?
Yes, and the day I graduated was the first day my father ever said to my face that he was proud of me. He was a real unreconstructed Scotsman and the paperboy knew, the insurance man knew, but he wouldn’t say to me. I remember walking down Ayr High Street with my mum when I was about 16 in my school blazer, because I had stayed on when you could leave in those days at 14, and a woman said, “what’s she doing at school, she should be bringing money into the house”. My mother drew herself up to her full five feet and said, “I didn’t rear weans to make a profit”.

Who would be your dream dinner date? 
I would really like to meet [Scottish novelist] Dorothy Dunnett. I have every book in both her Lymond Chronicals and Niccolo Rising series. I’ve read them and read them and read them and I’d like to see how she did all that. I would say Richard Gere, but I’ve already met him in the House of Commons and it was a huge thing for me. 

In that case, what’s your favourite film?
I love Pretty Woman and I really like Richard Gere in that. When I met him [the actor visited parliament in 2016 – above] it was astonishing. For TV, in the 1970s we were really into Family at War. That was during the three-day week and the final episode was broadcast on the day when we didn’t have electricity. They replayed it on one of those ‘classics’ channels in the last five or six years and I finally got to watch it. At the moment I’m really into Interior Design Masters. I can watch a lot of trashy telly.

What’s your most treasured possession?
An aerial photo my husband George got for me of our house in Wishaw. Like in a lot of long-term relationships, I would tell him what I wanted but he surprised me one Christmas with a picture of the house we lived in for 30 years. It was such a surprise and George loved that house, absolutely loved it. A lot of our family life happened there.

What skill should every person have?
Everybody should learn to knit. It frees up your mind. I find it really rewarding and relaxing. I feel better when I do it, but I’ve been knitting an Arran jumper for about three years because it’s hard to find the time. I’ve done a lot of baby stuff. Clare Adamson [MSP] took me to a knitting club in Motherwell, which was fantastic. 

What’s the worst thing that anyone’s ever said to you?
In senior secondary I was wrongly accused of forging my own report card and the depute rector was so convinced that I had done this that I started to doubt myself. I was standing in a corridor with classes walking by and first I was stunned and then he almost convinced me that I’d had some kind of blackout, and I started to cry.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever had? 
Because I don’t listen to it, that’s hard to say. I think it’s “be yourself”. I’ve really tried to do that. I have to follow my gut, and that’s part of knowing yourself.

Corisca, France | Alamy

What’s your guiltiest pleasure? 
This is a real stinkeroo – Channel 5 documentaries on the Royal family. If I turn it on and it’s there, I can’t turn it off, no matter how awful it is.

What was your best holiday ever?
The second time George and I went to Corsica we stayed in a wee place and it was five minutes to the beach, six to the supermarket and 10 to the citadel, and French foreign legionnaires jumped out of aeroplanes when we were lying on the beach. You would see them walking in town in 35 degree heat with creases on their trousers you could cut yourself on. They were very smart. And fit.

Who is your political hero?
My father. He was a Cooperative milkman and he was an unusual one. He used to rant because everybody in those days used to vote for Labour and he didn’t. He always said to me, “think about your vote”. I didn’t know, I still don’t know, if he was ever an SNP member or if he always voted for the SNP but he didn’t like people who just voted with the crowd. He so admired Jimmy Reid because of his skill, his oratory, his beliefs. When Jimmy Reid came to SNP conference one year, my son said to me “I know you’re thinking of granddad”.