Nicola Sturgeon has been compared to Barack Obama in a review of her autobiography.Despite her political career being littered with examples of her failing to remember key incidents, she has promised that her book will “candidly recount her interactions” as a politician.
It is set for release in August and will be partnered with the former First Minister touring Scotland to tout it to her fans and supporters. She signed a lucrative deal with Pan Macmillan, which included a £300,000 advance for her to write her memoirs. The book is for sale on Amazon for £21.35 and has been accompanied by early reviews from some of her celebrity friends and political allies.
Author and former neighbour Andrew O’Hagan supplied the most “sycophantic” of these by comparing Sturgeon to former US President Obama, who led the most powerful country in the world for two terms and helped to bring in health reforms while being credited with boosting the American economy.
In comparison, Sturgeon led a devolved executive for nine years and evidently failed to achieve quite so much as Obama. She has previously said her biggest accomplishments were a baby box, an idea borrowed from Finland, and the Scottish Child Payment, which has failed to bring down child poverty as much as she promised. Scotland is still reeling with some of the worst hospital waiting times in the UK, and some of the worst drug death and alcoholism problems in Europe.
O’Hagan, who wrote bestsellers like Mayflies and Caledonian Road, hailed Frankly as a “triumph.” He went on: “Truly searching, truly frank, an excavation not only of what has been crucial in Sturgeon’s life and in our political times but in what I would call the interior life of our generation.
“Frankly is the most insightful and stylishly open memoir by a politician since Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father.”
Obama’s 1995 New York Times bestseller was subtitled “A Story of Race and Inheritance” and dealt with his painful upbringing and US race relations.
It has also been criticised for some inaccuracies, with his biographer David Remnick describing it as “a mixture of verifiable fact, recollection, recreation, invention, and artful shaping.”
Sturgeon and the SNP have become infamous for rewriting history and taking credit for policies they didn’t create. She claimed there was “no major public opposition” to her gender reforms, which was untrue.
Other reviews of the book were left by other allies of Sturgeon, including former Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and actor Alan Cumming.
The latter wrote: “An amazing achievement. Nicola Sturgeon manages to write dispassionately about her life’s passion and mindfully about experiences that could have broken her.
“Even the iniquities of the patriarchy she endured are recounted with fairness and compassion – qualities that made her the great leader she was and the strong, resilient and happy woman she is today.”
Sturgeon’s rivals mocked these reviews. Scottish Tory MSP Annie Wells said: “Comparing Nicola Sturgeon to Barack Obama is sycophantic nonsense. One created history and led the free world, the other will be remembered for dividing Scotland and her own party.”
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie added: “Obama’s memoir was written by an inspiring politician with a vision of hope. Nicola Sturgeon is an increasingly irrelevant MSP who rarely turns up to Parliament.”
A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said: “The response from those who have read Frankly has been brilliant.”