Frankly: Nicola Sturgeon

Christopher Silvester | Issue 7 | Comment, Magazine

From the Archive

From self-lacerating memoir to by-election madness and a Labour Together takedown, The Mace’s literary editor Christopher Silvester rounds up the latest political books

We begin by casting back to late summer to include Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir Frankly in this seasonal survey of new political writing. According to Sunday Times interviewer Decca Aitkenhead, who had read the book in advance, it is “quite unlike most political memoirs” and “feels more like the author’s self-critical internal audit, detailing the thinking behind every decision and drama of 30 years in politics… Reading Frankly, there were moments when it felt like The French Lieutenant’s Woman rewritten by Margaret Atwood, a dark Victorian tale of a woman’s reputation ruined.”

Intriguingly, Sturgeon states in the book: “Long-term relationships with men have accounted for more than 30 years of my life, but I have never considered sexuality, my own included, to be binary.” Alex Massie, columnist for The Times, described the book as “an artfully constructed piece of special pleading designed to demonstrate, once and for all, that Nicola was Right All Along.” There is little acknowledgement of SNP policy failures. She is coy about the police investigation into her husband’s handling of SNP finances, but that is perhaps understandable since the case is sub judice until his trial early next year.

Several commentators were intrigued by Sturgeon’s claim in the book that despite having had long-term relationships with men for over 30 years, “I have never considered sexuality, my own …

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