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Born in Fife in 1974, broadcaster Edith Bowman started her radio career while doing communication studies at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh. Her first on-screen job was as a news presenter for MTV UK in the early 00s. Top of the Pops, royal wedding coverage, the Baftas and shows on BBC Radio 1, Radio 2 and 6 Music followed. Soundtracking, the film and music podcast she launched in 2016, is available on all providers. She is married to Tom Smith of the band Editors, has two children and lives in Gloucestershire.
Edith
This picture was taken at Circus World in Florida. We got to choose our makeup, costumes and accessories separately, but turned up dressed the same. It’s very apt that I’m a mini clown version of her – she had me when she was 19, and I was always by her side.
This was a special holiday. All of them were, whether we were in Florida or a caravan in Scotland. Mum and Dad ran a family hotel, along with her sisters and my grandpa and grandma. The work schedule was brutal, so holidays were a big deal. Our time together was about our little unit – Mum, Dad, me and my brother – making the most of it.
The hotel was an amazing environment to grow up in – it’s where I got my work ethic, but also where I learned how to talk to people. I’d always be at the reception, answering the phone, greeting guests as they arrived, or working behind the bar. It was a portal to a life outside our tiny little fishing village of Anstruther. People would stay from all over the world and I would get snapshots into different cultures outside our bubble.
Mum always jokes that she knew I was going to leave before I did. Growing up, we’d often have radio stations come and do roadshows from the hotel, which totally sparked my ambition. But the older I got, the more claustrophobic I felt. Case in point: I applied for my driving licence the day of my 17th birthday. I was kind of a shitty teenager because of the boredom, and started drinking really early. I didn’t do well in my Higher exams as a result, which was bad because they were a ticket out of Anstruther. But, eventually, I knuckled down.
I got work experience at Radio Forth in Edinburgh before I even started uni, and my degree suffered because I spent every minute in the studio. I was also sending out tons of show reels, but I got loads of knockbacks, and bad feedback about my accent. Thankfully, MTV gave me a shot – they wanted to represent the UK with a range of voices, which was a first. I’m so glad that I stuck to my guns and didn’t have elocution lessons, as being Scottish is who I am, and I’m proud of that. It also ended up becoming my wild card.
Even when I was on MTV and Radio 1, I would go back home as often as I possibly could. It didn’t matter if I was “on holiday” – I’d walk in and get my waitress outfit on and do shifts at the hotel, even on Christmas Day. I couldn’t not! I made sure to bring Mum along for whatever work trips I went on, too. Presenting T in the Park was one of my gigs, and she would sometimes come with me. I’d work for eight hours straight, so I couldn’t really babysit my plus one – I had to trust her to go off and do whatever she wanted. One time she went missing for a while. I was asking everyone: “Has anyone seen my mum?” My co-host Dougie [Anderson] goes: “Is that not her on the monitor?” Cut to my mum on screen, side of stage, as Primal Scream play Country Girl. She’s there doing air tambourine. Mum is very at ease, no matter who you introduce her to. She met Rod Stewart and managed to hold it together, and spoke to Sharleen Spiteri as if she’d known her a lifetime.
A few months after having my first son Rudy, I was struggling. Tom was away on tour, and I was speaking to mum on the phone about nothing in particular. I inherited from her a certain degree of not wanting to burden anyone with my troubles. But she must have detected it in my voice. About four hours later, she appeared at my front door. That’s the thing about Mum. She might be good fun, but she is also the person that people gravitate towards for help, support, advice and guidance.
In my family, we joke about her name being Eleanor “I’m fine” Bowman. Even when she had breast cancer in 2004, she was more concerned about how we were feeling about it, and kept it from me and my brother for as long as she could. I have told her she’s not allowed to do that any more. No matter what she is going through, she is a beacon of light and I am constantly amazed by her.
Eleanor
This was a magical day. We got painted up and then got on a rollercoaster. It was so fast one of the wigs fell off and hit the person behind us! It’s funny – I can’t remember what I did yesterday, but I do remember everything about that holiday.
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Growing up, Edith was expected to help out at the family hotel on the weekends, which meant she had to sacrifice a lot of her time with friends. It didn’t stop her, though – she would end up going out at 10 o’clock after her shift finished. Edith was quite wild and rebellious. When we found out that she had started smoking we were awful to her – making her smoke a whole cigarette in front of us. It helped, but you wouldn’t get away with that now without being reported to Childline.
I knew that Anstruther was never going to be big enough for Edith. She tried everything to get into the media – writing to radio and television stations. Nothing came up until the spot at Radio Forth – and even then they said to her: “You don’t expect us to put you on the radio speaking like that?” She thought: “I don’t want to change how I speak. It’s me.” The first time she was on the radio, I was picking up a group of golfers from St Andrews and driving them back to the hotel. Just as we were arriving, Edith came on the air – I did six laps of the car park so I could hear it all.
Edith is very kind and is always taking me to different gigs. Last year, for my 70th, we went to Munich together to see Adele and Coldplay. It was fabulous. I’ve met Chris Martin a few times, and he is my favourite. Such a lovely, gentle, sincere guy.
I am so proud of Edith. Even though I wanted to be an actress when I was younger, I didn’t have the guts to do what she has done. Sometimes she gets a bit of stick for not staying in Scotland, but Scotland really didn’t have anything for her when she was looking for it.
What I admire most about Edith is that she has never changed. She might be doing the red carpet at the Baftas, or having a coffee with me and my friends after cold-water swimming, and she’s still the exact same Edith.
