‘Frankly’: The key things we have learned from Nicola Sturgeon's memoir as book goes on sale early

The former first minister covers both her personal and political life in her memoir, detailing the highs and lows of both, including the independence referendum, her time as first minister and the coronavirus pandemic.

What have we learned from her new memoir?

The queen asked about Alex Salmond

Ms Sturgeon’s predecessor and former mentor Alex Salmond features heavily throughout her memoir.

However she said the late Queen Elizabeth II “loved a bit of gossip” and asked about the sex allegations against him when the pair met at Balmoral Castle in 2018.

Ms Sturgeon wrote: “She asked me about it almost as soon as I sat down.

“She wasn’t being trivial in any way, she wanted to know more about what was going on. I think she was also trying to put me at ease.”

Attacks on JK Rowling

The gender reform debate was one of the most controversial chapters in Ms Sturgeon’s career. She says she wishes she had “hit the pause button” on gender reform.

During her interview on ITV on Monday evening, she admitted she had “lost the dressing room” on the divisive issue.

In her memoir she criticises Harry Potter author and outspoken gender critic JK Rowling for posting a selfie wearing a T-shirt that said: “Nicola Sturgeon, destroyer of women’s rights.”

Ms Sturgeon said: “It resulted in more abuse, of a much more vile nature, than I had ever encountered before.

“It made me feel less safe and more at risk of possible physical harm.”

She added: “It was deeply ironic that those who subjected me to this level of hatred and misogynistic abuse often claimed to be doing so in the interests of women’s safety.”

Alex Salmond did not read independence white paper

In her memoir Ms Sturgeon writes about a “totally uncharacteristic sense of optimism” in the lead up to the 2014 independence referendum.

The former first minister said it was a tough time due to the unbalanced media coverage and because Mr Salmond left her to the heavy lifting, which “felt like we were trying to push a boulder uphill”.

Ms Sturgeon was in charge of drafting the independence white paper which she said left her in “utter despair” and being “overcome by a feeling of sheer impossibility”.

She said: “I ended up on the floor of my home office, crying and struggling to breathe. It was definitely some kind of panic attack.”

The Glasgow Southside MSP then said Mr Salmond “showed little interest in the detail” of the white paper, and added: “He promised he would read it on the plane. I knew his good intention would not survive contact with the first glass of in-flight champagne.”

Surprise at sectarian abuse

Ms Sturgeon says she was surprised by the level of sectarian abuse she received while out campaigning in Govan for the 1997 general election.

She said: “I was chased away from one door with shouts of ‘Fenian B******’ ringing in my ears.”

The former first minister said there were “whispers percolating around the constituency that I was an active supporter of the IRA”.

She said: “It was deeply unpleasant and an unwelcome education in the darker ‘arts’ of political campaigning.

“Although I had grown up in Ayrshire, I had never experienced the depth of sectarianism I encountered in parts of Govan.”

Ms Sturgeon believes the root of the abuse was her campaign team frequenting the Govan Arms pub which was known to be a “strongly Celtic supporter” bar.

Crying in the parliament toilets

Ms Sturgeon says she was subjected to “nasty bullying” by a male MSP during her early years in Holyrood.

She wrote: “At some stage over this first term of parliament, he started calling me ‘Gnasher’, both to other people and occasionally to my face.

“At first, I didn’t understand it. Eventually, I discovered it was a reference to a story being spread around that I had once injured a boyfriend during oral sex.”

She said she “cried in one of the toilets in the parliament office complex”.

Ms Sturgeon says she realised this was sexual bullying during the Me Too movement a decade later but has not named the individual as he would “enjoy the notoriety” and does not want to indulge him.

Alex Salmond pushed against gay marriage

Ms Sturgeon claims her predecessor “became increasingly hostile” to the idea of gay marriage until he was “implacably opposed” and said this became one of the most heated arguments the pair had.

She said "what started as a calm discussion very quickly descended into a shouting match” as Mr Salmond worried it would damage support for independence.

Ms Sturgeon said: “He claimed that the law would be a slippery slope and made arguments that seemed rooted in the prejudice which had put section 28 on the statute book.”

Allies of Mr Salmond such as Alex Neil and Joanna Cherry KC have rejected this claim.

Nicola Sturgeon and Derek Mackay are still friends

Ms Sturgeon said she still counts disgraced former finance secretary Derek Mackay as a friend despite the “serious mistake” he made by sending inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old boy.

Mr Mackay was forced to resign on the eve of the Scottish budget after the allegations were made public, forcing the then public finance minister Kate Forbes to step up in his place at the last minute.

The former first minister said she was initially in denial about the story and thought “it couldn’t possibly be true”, but then “felt sick” reading the full story.

She wrote: “The feelings of shock and upset were palpable. For me and my ministerial team, Derek had been a friend as well as a colleague. However, he had made a serious mistake and, rightly, paid the price.

“He eventually got his life back on track and, though it would be a few years before I spoke to him again, I still count him as a friend.”

‘Absurd’ letters from Donald Trump

Back in 2019 a judge ruled that Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd had to pay the legal bills incurred by the Scottish Government following an unsuccessful legal challenge.

This all stemmed from a dispute over an offshore windfarm near the Trump golf resort in Aberdeenshire.

Following this, Mr Trump sent Ms Sturgeon newspaper cuttings about the “evils of wind power”, where he had underlined passages and written “CRAZY!!!!” with a black sharpie pen.

Ms Sturgeon said this incident was “amongst the most absurd of my entire time in office”.

Tears over Boris Johnson

Ms Sturgeon admits she felt herself “welling up” when former prime minister Boris Johnson was taken into intensive care after contracting Covid-19.

She said the coronavirus pandemic was “the hardest period of my career, possibly my life”, and reflects on her feelings when she learned about how gravely ill her Westminster counterpart was in April 2020.

Ms Sturgeon wrote: “It was a moment in which the existential peril of the pandemic truly hit people.

“Whatever the science said, if it could fell even a prime minister, no one was safe.

“I remember feeling profoundly shaken by it and also fearing the worst.

“As I got dressed for work early on Tuesday morning, I wondered if I should wear black. It was horrible.

“When I sent Boris good wishes from my lunchtime briefing, I felt myself welling up.”

However she added she “would be taken aback” by how “unserious” Mr Johnson was when discussing the pandemic and the UK-wide lockdowns.

Counselling after ‘breaking down’ at Covid inquiry

Ms Sturgeon revealed she had to seek counselling after breaking down in tears while giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in January 2024.

She said: “For the first and only time in my life I actually went for some counselling because I felt I needed something to help me regain that sense of equilibrium and perspective on life.”

Ms Sturgeon said a friend recommended she go to therapy and she later told an ITV interview she did not tell her mum. She also said this was not the done thing growing up in the west of Scotland.