Stephen Smellie reviews Frankly by Nicola Sturgeon (Pan Macmillan, 2025) and finds an autobiography that is frankly disappointing.
When I told my colleague that I was reading Nicola Sturgeon’s autobiography, and said I was disappointed as it was all about her, I was quickly reminded that people who write autobiographies are supposed to write about themselves. That is the point!
I had to accept that was the case and so I plodded along to complete the book, disappointed, but accepting that if Nicola was writing her autobiography, it would be all about Nicola.
So why was I disappointed? Perhaps I expected too much?
Firstly, I should say that I liked Nicola. She demonstrated leadership skills and was far and away the most competent leader during Covid. Her style was friendly, and she clearly had a commitment to a fairer society.
I learn from the book that she supported CND. I didn’t learn why and what the compelling case against nuclear weapons was and is, nor how that squared with the SNP’s and Nicola’s decision to support membership of NATO.
Nicola supports independence for Scotland. I knew that already. She points out that someone from her working-class Ayrshire background would be expected to support Labour, but she didn’t. She supported the SNP. But I didn’t get an explanation as to why independence was so important to her, why it was important for the future of Scotland, and why it was important for the working class.
And so the book describes what happened in Nicola’s life and what she did and what she achieved, despite her lack of confidence in her own abilities at times. What we never get is an explanation of what she believed in and why. If you are looking for the case for independence, nuclear disarmament, gender equality, trans equality, action on supporting the Global South, all issues that she writes of as being important, you won’t find it here. Frankly, this is just a “What Nicola Did” kind of book and not “Why Nicola Did.”
In 2013, I wrote to Nicola Sturgeon after a Yes campaign fringe meeting at STUC Congress, suggesting that it might be an idea for the SNP to set up a working group, involving trade unions, to look at what trade union laws and industrial relations would look like in an independent Scotland. She responded positively. Other people were probably making the same suggestion. Some months later she came forward with the Working Together Review, led by Minister Jim Mathers and involving trade union and business representatives that led to the Fair Work Convention. Fair Work became a key feature of the Government’s agenda over the rest of her time as First Minister. The original idea was to engage with trade unions and seek to demonstrate that an independent Scotland was something that trade unions need not fear, and that they would have a role in creating a better country.
During the referendum campaign the emergence of groups supportive of a Yes vote was critical in building support. Scant mention is made of these in the book. She relates how she constantly toured the country speaking at meetings, but gives no detail of how a grassroots movement was built, and no mention of the Radical Independence Campaign which mobilised working class support in areas which had long been Labour strongholds, and had high levels of non-voting.
Both the initiatives that became known as Fair Work and the projects building working class support for independence contributed to most trade unions remaining neutral in the run up to the 2014 referendum, and to many activists, including many Labour members, supporting Yes.
None of that gets a mention in the book. Trade unions do not get a mention at all. Tt is all about what Nicola did.What Nicola should do next is write a book that explains why she did what she did. If Frankly is what history must use to judge her, then it will see her as a careerist who was only ever interested in her next move, and that would be a shame. Unless it is true.
Stephen Smellie is secretary of UNISON South Lanarkshire and Convenor of the Scottish Left Review Editorial Board.