It is the political memoir which has courted controversy before it even goes to print – not least because its author has seldom been seen in Holyrood since she started penning it.
Now Nicola Sturgeon has declared she has few qualms about hurting people’s feelings with the contents of her as yet untitled book, due next year.
The former First Minister told an interviewer that she could not promise the book will not ‘ruffle anybody’s feathers’ but pledged to provide an ‘absolutely honest’ account of her three decades in politics.
She also signalled that, despite a backlash over her time spent writing the memoir while still taking an MSP’s salary, she may turn her hand to fiction, as she has a few ‘embryonic’ novel ideas.
Asked if hurting someone’s feelings through her writing is something she worries about, Ms Sturgeon told The Scotsman: ‘Em, no,’ but added: ‘I hope I’ve not gratuitously hurt anybody and actually there are not that many people I’ve got grievances with that I would want to do that, so no.’
She added: ‘Hopefully my memoir is as much about the last 30 years of Scottish history, which have been quite eventful politically, as it is about me and my life. So, I am not promising I won’t ruffle anybody’s feathers, but hopefully not too much.’
Readers have already been told to expect ‘a revealing memoir from one of Britain’s most significant political leaders of recent times’ which will detail her interactions ‘with a range of notable figures, giving her unique in-the-room perspective on the most tumultuous era in modern Scottish and British politics’.
Diehard fans can pre-order the memoir before its official release date of August 14 next year at a cost of £28 a copy.
Her publishing director is Mike Harpley, who helped Ms Sturgeon’s role model, former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, write her book.
However, Ms Sturgeon has been roundly criticised for spending up to 15 hours a week writing the memoir while still serving as a Glasgow MSP on a £72,196 salary.
Following her resignation announcement on February 15 last year, parliamentary records show that she will pocket £300,000 for the book deal, which includes a £75,000 advance, from publishing house Pan Macmillan.
During the interview, Ms Sturgeon said that she was now in the editing stage, having suffered periods of writer’s block – eased with help from her friend and crime writer Val McDermid.
At the same time, she has been writing a number of paid book reviews, including one for Boris Johnson’s Unleashed memoir – which she claimed ‘wasn’t time well spent’.
Reflecting on her moonlighting as an author, Ms Sturgeon admitted: ‘It’s been harder than I thought. I’ve got a greater respect now for what people like Val do.’
Ms Sturgeon was arrested and later released without charge as officers probe the spending of £600,000 of SNP funds.
Her husband and former party chief executive Peter Murrell has been charged with embezzlement.
Ms Sturgeon also faced criticism for taking £25,000 for a single night’s work as a TV pundit for ITV’s general election coverage in July. Meanwhile, she has set up an ‘artistic creation company’, Nicola Sturgeon Limited, to receive outside earnings.