A DECADE ago the then 34-year-old Nicola Sturgeon had made such progress as a young SNP politician that she was making a plausible tilt at taking over her party and becoming Opposition leader at Holyrood.

Then Alex Salmond decided to return from Westminster and she swiftly withdrew to stand as his deputy for a decade which has seen the SNP become a party of minority administration, full majority government and within a few points of winning independence in a referendum.

Unchallenged and unassailable as new SNP leader, she will head a party which has seen its membership more than treble since the disappointment of last month and which could yet allow her to become First Minister for years to come.

Most politicians follow their families into politics. In the case of Ms Sturgeon's mother, Joan it was the other way round - being elected an SNP councillor in North Ayrshire in 2007 and becoming Provost five years later.

For good measure Ms Sturgeon is also married to SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, although both have been at pains to deny this will amount to too great a concentration of party power when she takes the top role.

Born in Irvine, she was educated locally before studying law at Glasgow University, going on to work as a solicitor at an advice centre in the Drumchapel area.

She was the youngest candidate in Scotland when she first stood for Westminster in the 1992 general election, fighting Glasgow Shettleston.

In 1999 Ms Sturgeon became one of the new MSPs, initially representing Glasgow region but later winning Glasgow Govan then Glasgow Southside in 2007 and 2011 respectively.

In government her long stint as Health Secretary ended when she was appointed Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities with a critical role in the SNP's plans for the independence referendum, which saw her dubbed the Yes Minister.

She is an avid fan of Borgen, the television drama about a female Premier, and Danish fiction is about to become Scottish fact.