By Kim McAllister

Bella Mackie wants to move to Edinburgh.

“It’s my favourite city in the whole world,” she cries.

“My best ever run was from Stockbridge to Portobello, I got ice cream and sat on the beach and watched dogs playing in the sea and I genuinely thought ‘this is the most magical day of my whole life'.”

The Londoner is back in Scotland, not to visit her family, makers of the famous ice cream, but to talk business with 150 women.

“Even there I get imposter syndrome, sitting with these amazing women with actual businesses – but I do genuinely believe in this modern world that if you’re self employed then you are your own business,” she says.

The author of bestseller ‘Jog On – How running saved my life’ was on a panel of five women gathered by RBS for its “Ask For More” event in Glasgow.

The panel discussed the findings of the Rose Review of female entrepreneurship, commissioned by the bank’s new  - and first female – chief executive Alison Rose. It found that only one in three entrepreneurs are women and closing the gap could add an additional £250bn to the UK economy.

Joining Bella on the panel was Bross bagels founder Lara Bross, social media influencer Sara Tasker, CodeClan CEO Melinda Matthews and RBS Business Development Manager Paula Ritchie.

Of the four themes identified by the report, confidence was by far the key issue highlighted at the event for holding women back.

It’s something Bella identifies with.

“I think our perception of what a woman in business is, is lagging behind,” she muses.

“Representation of women in business is still a bit ‘The Apprentice’ – I don’t think we have to dress up to look like an approximation of a man.”

Bella walked away from a job in journalism due to the frustration of her male counterpart earning more than twice what she earned. She took a very small amount of money, in her words, to write a book which quickly became a bestseller – and has sold steadily throughout 2019.

She claims not to look at the sales figures, but rather to judge its success on the reactions she gets from readers.

“I’m quite into women telling me they started running marathons,” she says.

The book is a very honest account of how she overcame crippling anxiety triggered by her first marriage breaking down by running each day. Interestingly, Bella was surprised when initial reactions to the book focused on how brave she was for sharing such a personal account.

“I’m a huge over-sharer generally and I’d been thinking about my own mental health for such a long time that it didn’t feel like a weird story,” she explains.

“My family may not have understood me at the time, but they were very open about mental health. Now when people get in touch with me I realise how lucky I was.”

Her family is extraordinary. As well as the Mackies ice cream connection there is her grandfather – a Member of the House of Lords; her father – Alan Rusbridger, who edited The Guardian newspaper for a decade and her husband – Radio 1 breakfast show host Greg James. That’s a lot of male role models.

“I’ll always be known as someone’s daughter and someone’s wife – and no one wants that.

"That’s not what anyone grows up and hopes for. I spend quite a lot of my time unpeeling myself from my husband, we do not come as a package, this is not a thing!

I grew up with really strong Scottish women surrounding me. My grandfather had three daughters and they had ten daughters! It was just women in my family and a few quiet men who had married in. The women were the ones who really pushed me along.”

She describes regular eight hour trips to Aberdeen to visit family and a boisterous, loud atmosphere.

“It was always family first – and that closeness has woven through my life. At the age of 36 family is the most important thing to me,” she says.

“Being bolshy and opinionated and speaking your own mind and fighting is just our way - my family are just quite explosive, emotional women and I’m quite an explosive emotional woman but I like that! That informs how I talk about mental health and that’s where I get it from – just say it!”

She sounds like she’s reached a bit of a milestone in her life. After an ill-fated stint in art school – Central St Martins, no less – and a decade spent battling with her mental health and working as a journalist, an area she fell into thanks to her family connections, she sounds like she has finally found her niche as an author.

“Now I’m doing something that’s just me and that feels incredibly rewarding compared to something I always felt conflicted about,” she admits.

“It feels strange because I’m 36 years old and this is all my experiences and all my own work.”

Her first novel – “How to Kill Your Family” – will be out in June 2020, she just has to kill off two more characters and submit her first draft before Christmas.

There may be a podcast in the works - there may even be a permanent move north.

“If Brexit does happen and Scotland says f**k it we’re staying in the EU, I’ll be the first person on the train,” she laughs.

She’d be very welcome.