SCOTLAND’S LONGEST-SERVING first minister is returning to Dunoon as she travels around the country to meet the people and talk about her life in the public eye.
By Charles Fletcher [email protected]
Nicola Sturgeon will be back in the Queen’s Hall, the scene of many SNP Conferences in the past, to reminisce about her years in government and those at the helm when she led the country through the traumatic years of the Covid pandemic.
Nicola Sturgeon will rewind over the years from initially joining the SNP and travelling through the ranks to becoming deputy first minister to Alex Salmond in the first SNP Government in 2007.
She continued as deputy in the Scottish Parliament’s only – so far – majority administration in 2011, which led to the referendum on Scotland’s future in 2014.
When Alex Salmond resigned after narrowly losing the referendum, she was elected SNP leader by her party and first minister by the parliament.
The following year, Nicola Sturgeon captured 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats at Westminster.
The much-anticipated memoir, called Frankly, is already being described as candid, witty and deeply compelling.
It is anticipated to be a scintillating tour de
force that, by all accounts of those closest to the former first minister, is enlightening and triumphant.
The international award-winning crime novelist Val McDermid, who has just completed a successful return to the annual Bute Noir festival in Rothesay, is a close friend of Nicola Sturgeon.
She’s had a chance to read the former FM’s biography in advance of its launch.
“Yes, I have seen it and it’s a good read,” she told this newspaper.
“I think people will find it interesting. It is revelatory.”
On the evening at the Queen’s Hall and across the pages of Frankly, you can expect a seamless raising of the curtain on both the public and the private life of one of Scotland’smostinfluential and successful leaders.
Bookpoint said tickets for Nicola Sturgeon at the Queen’s Hall on Wednesday, August 13 at 6pm are selling fast and there are only a few spaces left.
To reserve a space call 01369 702377 or email bookpointdunoon@ gmail.com
Later this month, the acclaimed novelist and poet Polly Clark will be the Bookpoint guest in the book shop.
Polly has won readers all around the world with her works including Larchfield, Tiger and Take Me with You.
Her latest work is called Ocean and is already being predicted as a huge seller.
In the book, she tells the story of Helen, a school teacher caught up in a terrorist attack on the London Underground.
Helen is pregnant and lost until a stranger leads her to safety then suddenly vanishes.
Obsessed with finding him, she begins to lose her grip on reality and her family.
In search of healing, she takes a voyage across the Atlantic with her children, but what begins as a daring bid for salvation turns into an epic journey, as the ocean proves as wild and unpredictable as the heartbreak Helen is trying to outrun.
Gripped already? You can reserve tickets for Polly Clark at Bookpoint on Monday, August 25 at 6pm by calling the book shop or sending them an email.
