In case you haven't heard, Nicola Sturgeon has a new book

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

The former First Minister has been doing the media rounds in promotion of her book and there has been huge interest, which is a reflection on how central she was not just to Scottish politics but to UK politics over the last 10 years. But how is she viewed now?
According to Radio Scotland viewers who got in touch with the Mornings show on Tuesday she's either a 'control freak', an 'emotionless, soulless, automaton' or "wonderfully warm', 'the best First Minister Scotland has ever had' and 'just a lovely human being.'
The jury is out in other words.
SNP MSP Michelle Thomson - not necessarily one of Nicola's biggest fans within the party - was on hand on Radio Scotland to suggest that Sturgeon's new book was an act of reputation repair.
'If the new blinking, emerging Nicola Sturgeon is coming into sunlight where she presumably wants to fashion a new career where she is a talking head media darling on the London circuit she will need to be prepared to show humility …' Thomson added.
Hmmm. I don't remember much humility from the former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng who crashed the economy almost overnight and he's always popping up on radio and TV and newspapers these days.
Mornings presenter Connie McLaughlin also talked to Adam Fleming of the BBC's Newsquest who has also interviewed the former First Minister. Fleming revealed that Nicola has now got a tattoo. Of an arrow in a circle. What it means, Fleming added, Sturgeon's not saying.
Over on Radio 4's Today programme the woman herself was in the studio on Tuesday morning. Anna Foster didn't ask her about the tattoo. Rather, in an old-school, combative political interview she zoned in on the Isla Bryson story, the educational attainment gap and Scottish life expectancy.
Sturgeon was as bullish as ever in her answers. Whatever her strengths and failings as a politician, she always knew how to present herself to the media.
Foster kept asking about apologies but Sturgeon wasn't in the mood to give any. 'There's no amount of self-flagellation I can do that will satisfy some of my critics,' she said.
The question now is will this media round help sell the book? Time and the bestsellers chart will tell.
This month sees the 80th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. John Hershey's famous New Yorker report of what happened in the Japanese city that day has been dramatised by Radio 4. The first part aired on Sunday and was a chilling reminder of the devastation wrought.
In a city of 245,000 nearly 100,000 were killed or left dying. Another 100,000 more were hurt.
Hershey's words - read here by actors - were a nightmarish vision of dead bodies and flames and burnt skin.
'On some undressed bodies the burns had made patterns of undershirts, straps and suspenders and, on the skin of some women - since white repelled the heat from the bomb and dark clothes absorbed it and conducted it to the skin - the shapes of flowers they had on their kimonos.'
The horror of that. This was sobering listening.
Finally, and rather more cheerfully, 6 Music gave over its late-night Artist in Residence slot to the best pop star in the world at the moment, Ireland's CMAT.
As if I couldn't love her anymore than I do she started her show on Monday by playing Altered Images and Orange Juice and talking about how she'd bought the former's I Could Be Happy single on vinyl in Groucho's record shop in Dundee, 'which no longer exists, rest in peace it was one of the greatest of all time.'
Monday was her "indie show", but her Pop, Euro and Country hours were even better. Pop saw her play Addison Rae ('she's my Princess Diana at the moment'), Kylie ('She is the blueprint for what every woman should be, which is surrounded by homosexuals 24/7'), Girls Aloud, Gilbert O'Sullivan and The Nolans. As for her country show, is this the first time Philomena Begley has been played on 6 Music?
Anyway, this was four hours of pure joy, all available on BBC Sounds. You could always listen to it while you're reading Nicola's book.
Listen Out For: Take Four Books, Radio 4, Sunday, August 17, 4pm
James Crawford talks to author Rachel Kushner about her novel Creation Lake direct from the Edinburgh International Book Festival.