Silver was born in a small mining village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. She was premature, and spent the first three months of her life in an incubator. Silver’s mother was a midwife, and her father was an engineer. Growing up, she remembers her family being very political – her grandfather and uncles had all been miners, and she remembers village life feeling “over-observed". “We had a big family, and lots of neighbours, and they all lived the same life. For my spirit, it was a bit over-observed and over-commented on. When I was a teenager, I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, everyone knows your business,' and them telling my uncle I was seen on a bus talking to a boy. It was a very small world, and very, very intimate. You were everybody's child.”