Tragedy became Sliding Doors moment for politician

"It's a Sliding Doors moment, isn't it?"

Wales' Climate Change Minister Julie James makes reference to the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow film as she recalls the moment, 33 years ago, that changed her life.

Sitting in Swansea's Cwmdonkin Park, she said: "I married my long-term partner and we had a baby, and then he was killed in a car crash when she was 11 months old and your life just changes."

At the time, she was living in London and had recently qualified as a barrister with the aim of eventually "trying to be an MP".

"You never come to terms with it. Never. You don't recover, you just learn to live with it.

"And I was very lucky and I met my exceptionally sainted husband David… and he rescued me, really. Rescued us."

• A really simple guide to climate change

• What is a Member of the Senedd?

Julie James is Wales' first climate change minister

The Swansea West Member of the Senedd recalled the tragedy in an interview with the Walescast podcast - the first of a series of profiles of senior Welsh political figures.

She "became a single parent pretty young", and then changed career to work in local government in Camden, north London, in order "to get a more stable existence".

After meeting David, the pair married and had two boys before deciding they wanted to raise them in Wales.

"David always said he hadn't realised quite how Welsh I was until he heard me talking on the phone to mam."

Julie James (far left) took part in a minute's silence for Covid victims with First Minister Mark Drakeford (centre)

Is she Welsh or British?

"Welsh, very definitely," she replies without missing a beat - her national identity is something of great importance to her.

"I think because I moved all the time, it was my anchor. My mamgu [grandmother] was here. It's where we came home to. My parents always described it as going home."

When Ms James said she she "moved all the time", she wasn't exaggerating.

"My father had really itchy feet and never really settled to one occupation, so about every 18 months, 20 months we would be up and off again but we always came back to Wales in between."

Canada, where she learnt her love of skiing, was home on several occasions, but also the USA, and on "one memorable occasion we went to Nenagh in County Tipperary in Ireland".

"It was a fun childhood, you can tell, I'm smiling, I enjoyed myself. But it was also odd. It was definitely odd."

The brother who is 'the Mozart of techno'

She remains "very close" to her sister, who also lives in Swansea, and also has a brother who visits "all the time".

Richard D James might not ring any bells for most people. But his work under his stage name - Aphex Twin - led music journalists in the 1990s to describe him as "the Mozart of techno".

She and the rest of the family are "very proud of him", but is she a fan?

"Very much. Not all of it. Some of it's, I think Charlie Brooker once said, it was like being inside a CT scanner for an hour.

"But some of it is glorious. He writes beautiful jazz. He did a collaboration with Phillip Glass, which is glorious, and a lot of his ambient stuff is lovely."

Aphex Twin, pictured in 2011, was described by music journalists in the 1990s as the 'Mozart of Techno'

When Carwyn Jones stood down as first minister and Welsh Labour leader in December 2018, it was arranged that members of the Welsh government's cabinet gave him a vinyl record as a leaving gift.

Ms James gave him Aphex Twin's Collapse EP.

Does she thinks he listens to it all the time? "Oh, I'm sure," the Labour politician smiles, sarcastically.

First elected to Cardiff Bay in 2011 to represent Swansea West, Ms James became a deputy minister in 2014 before joining the cabinet in 2017 and being appointed to the "huge job" of Wales' first climate change minister.

"I'm not enjoying it yet. I think I will enjoy it.

"When you take on a new job, it's three to six months before you even understand quite what you're reading.

"We have a lot of really difficult decisions to make over the next few years."

A month into the role, she said Wales needed to do twice as much on climate change in the next decade "as we've done in the previous 30 years" while ministers had to "put the conditions in place so that people aren't sacrificing things in order to assist the climate".

People in Wales will not lose their holidays abroad, Julie James says

Is that really the case? Won't we need to make some sacrifices?

"Lots of people in Wales never go abroad on holiday and don't own a car.

"They're not going to be sacrificing holidays abroad and cars, so we have to do this in a socially-just way.

"I love a holiday abroad as much as anyone else, I like to go skiing and all the rest of it.

"But I'm going to be seriously thinking, even more than I was already… about how I get there, what I do when I'm there, how we spend our money, whether that benefits local people."

Before First Minister Mark Drakeford stands down before the next Senedd election in 2026, Ms James wants the national forest and a new national park to be on "an inexorable path".

Mark Drakeford's role as first minister is a "horrible job" to do, says Ms James

With Mr Drakeford already putting a time frame in place for his departure, have conversations started behind the scenes about who might replace him?

"No, not yet. I hope he stays… but I suspect he doesn't want to stay."

Ms James, however, is adamant she will not be throwing her hat into the ring.

Laughing and grimacing, she says: "It's a horrible job. I will not be ending up doing it. No, definitely not."

So, who will succeed the first minister?

"Well, now there's a question..."