The National Library of Scotland's chief executive Amina Shah told interviewer Lorraine Wilson about 10 things that changed her life...

1 My children

I HAVE four children and it’s no exaggeration to say that being their mum has been the defining part of my life for the past 22 years.

I had my first at 25 when I was working at the Mitchell Library and living with my boyfriend, who was still a student. We were in a one-bedroom flat, both our families were in England, and none of our friends had kids. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

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Now that baby, Felix, is at university in Newcastle. Molly, is at Glasgow, and my younger sons Louis and Finn are at high school.

Of course I have brilliant memories of them when they were young, but I find it even better as they’ve grown into adults, watching them become their own people.

2 Libraries

OF course libraries are a massive part of my life. My parents even met in a library – at the Mitchell in Glasgow where my mum was a library assistant and my dad was a student.

We moved around a lot because of my dad’s job and I always used the library – in Whiteinch in Glasgow and Wester Hailes in Edinburgh I would go with my mum, and when we moved to central Edinburgh I was old enough to go on my own. It was a great moment of independence where I would buy sweeties and go to the library – I could live in my own world.

When we moved to Blackburn, I went to a school that was 50% white and 50% Asian and there was so much violence in the playground that I worked in the school library to escape.

Obviously I was appointed to the National Library of Scotland this year and coming full circle, I met my husband Kevin at the library in Dundee.

3 Books

I’VE also worked in bookshops like Waterstones and at the Scottish Book Trust. I’ve turned to books for anything that I’ve needed throughout my life, whether that’s solace, entertainment, or support. When I was first pregnant, I would haunt charity shops looking for baby books and was surprised that one of the best was by Paula Yates! Now, wherever, we go I bore my family senseless, dragging them into every bookshop.

4 My childhood kitchen table

BETWEEN the ages of five and 11, I lived in Gilmore Place in Edinburgh. My mum was involved in loads of different women’s support groups, so there were always interesting women around that table, drinking endless pots of tea. I would sit on the battered old sofa with my book, but would be quietly listening to all their stories. I also remember a lot of Joni Mitchell.

Sometimes my dad’s family would be over from Pakistan and there would be a completely different group of people around that table.

The house was always busy with eclectic and interesting people who gathered around that kitchen table. I learned so many things and absorbed it all, from people with so many different points of view.

5 Old letters

MY grandfather came over from India to study at Imperial College in London in the 1920s. He met my English grandmother there and they settled in what was then India, but after partition became Pakistan.

My dad then followed in his dad’s footsteps and came to London to study, but when he did go back his uncle gave him the letters that his dad sent home in the 1920s.

I used to study them when I was a child and I was given them when my dad died.

It’s such an intimate thing to see handwritten letters.

In the National Library I love that we have the last letter written by Mary Queen of Scots, but no more than I love the precious family letters.

6 Dundee

I’VE lived in so many different places, but I moved to Dundee when I went to university. One of the most important things about it was it was that it was finally my choice where to be. Maybe too, I was there at the time in life that you’re really becoming yourself – I see that with my own children.

There’s a truth about Dundee that it’s big enough to have loads of interesting things going on, but small enough that everyone seems to know one another. It feels like a community.

We live in Wormit now and look across to the city. I lived in Glasgow for a while after university but came back here in 2000, so it feels more like home than anywhere else.

7 The NHS

IN April 2011, my son Finn was diagnosed with leukaemia. He was two and a half at the time. Our whole world fell to pieces of course.

After diagnosis in Dundee, we were taken to the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh, where it was almost like walking through a portal. So many ill children were being looked after by these superheroes. Of course I had no idea that all this was going on; it’s only when you’re faced with it that you realise the absolutely amazing job that these people do.

Treatment for boys for leukaemia takes three and a half years. Of course friends and family were amazing but the NHS was something else… We have to fight so hard to make sure we don’t lose it.

8 My brother

MY brother Rehan took his own life in 2015. Obviously that changed my life massively. He left two children behind and my dad died less than a year later, never having told anyone that my brother had died. He couldn’t come to terms with how his son had died, as it was against his religion.

No one knew how much he was suffering. He was such an amazing person and so loved. He worked with prisoners, helping them to get them back into society and he was so dedicated.

Suicide is so difficult for everyone. Friends, family, everyone thinks they could have stopped it. You always have the sense that you could have intervened.

9 Julie, my childminder

JULIE was my childminder from 2000 to 2020. For a big chunk of those 20 years, she had a huge role in bringing up my children. There’s absolutely no way that I and my husband Kevin could have worked if it hadn’t been for Julie.

Julie gave that sense of added stability to my children. She’s also really good at all the things that I’m not good

at all. The sensible stuff and things like baking.

If I had had to deal with a string of different people and nurseries, the children wouldn’t have felt so stable and secure and I wouldn’t have been able to work in the way that I have.

10 Our dog Otis

WHEN I lived in Wester Hailes I spent the whole time being chased my dogs. I was even taken to a child psychologist about my fear of them – I didn’t work. I would cross the road to avoid dogs.

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But after 15 years of hardcore pestering, we got Otis in 2019. He has changed everything for me. I’ve lost the fear of other dogs. I can enjoy the beach and walks more. He made me realise the fear wasn’t a real thing and helped me control other anxieties.

It’s just so bloody brilliant having a dog. They’re so focused on being alive and enjoying life without reason. We can learn a lot from them.