McDermid comes from a working-class family in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she was the first student from a state school in Scotland Nicholas Wroe.
McDermid comes from a working-class family in Kirkcaldy, Fife. McDermid was educated at St Hilda's College. St Hilda's College is Oxford in Scotland Nicholas Wroe. She was the first student from a state school.