US EditionFrankly, what have we learnt from Nicola Sturgeon's memoir?
Nicola Sturgeon reflects on political conflicts, personal hardships, and mental health challenges during her leadership, including controversies on transgender rights and SNP investigations.
- Nicola Sturgeon released her memoir Frankly in 2025, candidly reflecting on her political career, personal challenges, and public controversies.
- The memoir follows significant events including the April 5, 2023 police raid on her Glasgow home and her husband Peter Murrell’s embezzlement charges.
- Sturgeon discusses her regrets over gender self-identification legislation, mental health struggles during the Covid-19 pandemic, and divisions over trans rights in her final months.
- She reveals that at one moment during the pandemic, she was overwhelmed to the point of collapsing in her home office, tearful and having difficulty breathing, experiencing what she identifies as a panic attack. She describes the challenge of guiding Scotland through Covid as extraordinarily difficult and mentally and physically exhausting.
- Sturgeon remains committed to Scottish independence, acknowledges a time of rancour and division, and reflects that her legacy will largely be shaped by the trans rights debate.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Nicola Sturgeon does not spare Alex Salmond in her excoriating memoir
I met Nicola Sturgeon years ago at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, soon after she had become Scotland’s First Minister. We were both speaking at the festival. She was dressed casually and seemed light and breezy. I blurted out: “Oh My God, I think I have a crush on you.”She laughed, but I was mortified. How did I say something so crass to a leader of one of our nations? Another speaker overheard our exchange and whispered to me: “You do kn…
Who is the real Nicola Sturgeon?
There has been a drip feed of stories over the past few days from Nicola Sturgeon's memoir Frankly which hits the shelves this week. In her book, the former First Minister of Scotland covers a slew of topics including SNP infighting and her relationship with the late Alex Salmond, her sexuality and the police probe into SNP finances, and the gender reform bill that contributed to her leaving frontline politics.Spectator writer and Scottish Daily…
Nicola Sturgeon's memoir: making the personal political
"Nicola Sturgeon isn't someone for whom oversharing comes naturally," said The Spectator's political correspondent Lucy Dunn.Scotland's former first minister has "regularly been labelled 'dour' or 'frosty'" by both opponents and supporters. Her leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic, her stance on Scottish independence, her calamitous Gender Recognition Reform Bill – which "prompted her resignation" in 2023 – and Operation Branchform, the polic…
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