Latest news with #EdinburghBookFestival
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Nicola Sturgeon says the late Queen asked for 'gossip' about Alex Salmond sex claims
In her memoir called Frankly, Nicola Sturgeon candidly lifts the lid on the highs and lows of her time in office, and talks about Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for 70 years The late Queen asked for "gossip" about the Alex Salmond sex allegations, Nicola Sturgeon claims. Scotland's former first minister describes Queen Elizabeth II as "an incredible woman" in her new book called Frankly. In the memoir, she also tells how the monarch immediately asked for details about Mr Salmond when the women met at Balmoral Castle a few weeks after misconduct claims against him first emerged. Claiming the Queen "loved a bit of gossip", Ms Sturgeon wrote in her autobiography: "She asked me about it almost as soon as I sat down. She wanted to know more of what was going on." In the book, officially released on Thursday, Ms Sturgeon also speaks about her "horror" and "shame" of her house being raided by police. Hero who saved Princess Anne from kidnap slams decision to release her attacker Describing herself as a republican "at heart and by instinct", Ms Sturgeon, 55, lavishes praise on the late Queen as "utterly fascinating" and "an incredible woman". She says she was "struck by the aura" she "exuded as she entered the room". Although the 470-page book is officially released on Thursday, copies went on sale in branches of Waterstones across Scotland yesterday, with the company insisting no sales embargo was in place. However, the author is set to talk about the book at the Edinburgh Book Festival, which this year started on Saturday and ends on August 24. Ms Sturgeon regularly enjoyed charming audiences with the Queen at Balmoral. The book reads: "She was always relaxed and chatty, and these sessions would typically last for around an hour." But the encounter in September 2018 was off the back of claims surrounding Mr Salmond. It was alleged he asked a female staff member into his bedroom at Bute House before making sexual advances when he was First Minister in December 2013. In January 2019, Mr Salmond was charged with 14 offences, including attempted rape and sexual assault, but he was awarded compensation of £500,000 by the Scottish Government in August 2019 and later acquitted of all charges after trial in March 2020. Ms Sturgeon assumed the monarch would not have mentioned the claims in September 2018, yet Queen Elizabeth did bring the matter up. Ms Sturgeon, who succeeded Mr Salmond as first minister, continued: "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 of what was going on. I think she was also trying to put me at ease... She also loved a bit of gossip. She always wanted to hear the stories behind the political headlines." Mr Salmond, who died aged 69 last October, always considered himself something of a favourite of the Queen because of their mutual love of horseracing.
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Kevin McKenna: 'A warm welcome by Sturgeon confessions leave me cold'
For the record, the former First Minister is looking relaxed in a rather fetching two-piece of brown pinstriped trousers and waistcoat. She's just stepped off the stage where she'd had a chat with Jim Monaghan to launch the Govanhill Book Festival. Mr Monaghan is a much-loved poet and social activist around the south side of Glasgow and Ms Sturgeon has represented this area in one form or another for almost a quarter of a century. The contrast between this event and Thursday's official launch of Ms Sturgeon's memoirs at the Edinburgh Book Festival, is stark. Tonight, I'm with 100 or so souls paying not much more than a fiver a pop at the Queen's Park Govanhill Church of Scotland. On Thursday, more than 2,000 people will have paid through the nose at a sold out event at the mighty McEwan Hall. The conversation was interesting and even, at times, heartfelt. Ms Sturgeon discussed her lifelong love of books and how this had been a light to her in some very dark corners. Acknowledging that there be journos afoot in the audience, she dutifully threw us some scratchings about Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer. Nicola Sturgeon at the Govanhill Book Festival (Image: NQ) 'There's a sense of despair that all the wrong people are in power — not here in Scotland — but there is a sense that the wrong people are taking the world in the wrong direction. 'You've got people like Donald Trump trying to persuade people that the real challenge is not climate change, but the policies that are being pursued to try to tackle climate change.' She then turned on Sir Keir for 'trying to outdo Nigel Farage on immigration' and for not having 'the guts to stand up and say why the country needs immigration, why it's good for the country to be diverse.' This may very well be true, but she can't actually believe that right now in Scotland, the right people are in control, given that that they've failed dismally in every important area of public life and by every significant metric. And that because of this, Scotland is a bitterly divided nation where the censor's pen and the redacted document are the chief means of civic governance. There are traces of this in a pocket of silent protestors who have gathered outside the venue, including some Alex Salmond supporters. Two former SNP members tell me that they consider Ms Sturgeon to be 'worse than Trump'. And as the audience inside began to leave, one chap shouted something about men in women's toilets. However, this is a community event and a very good one at that. The Q&A session that follows the conversation isn't really for journalists to do grandstanding. The book festival is part of the wider Govanhill Festival which is now in its ninth year. It's a triumph of optimism and creativity in a neighbourhood that's had to meet and overcome some chronic adversity. For a while, Govanhill was the favoured destination of right-wing newspaper snoopers channelling racism directed at the Roma Community who have settled here and blaming Nicola Sturgeon for the perceived decrepitude of the hedges in this area. READ MORE: Ms Sturgeon has played an active part in bringing about the re-birth of Govanhill and has been tireless in her advocacy for the restoration of the Govanhill Baths. She was also a champion for the astonishing transformation in the Gorbals just down the road. She is both well-kent and much admired in this constituency. Once, around ten years ago I'd taken her into Heraghty's Bar for a couple of drinks following an interview in her constituency office which sat across the road from the best pub in the south side of Glasgow. It was an establishment mainly favoured by the Irish community and she was very much at home sipping white wine spritzers at the bar amongst the regulars. Everything Ms Sturgeon said about the US President and Keir Starmer was rendered somewhat redundant though, when Boothman of the Times sidled up to me afterwards to show me his paper's breathless on-line exclusive. The Times have paid serious money to get access to Ms Sturgeon's recollections. And this evening the first fruits of it were revealed. They told us that Ms Sturgeon considers her sexuality to be non-binary and about the heartache of suffering a miscarriage. The day she was lifted by the cops in 2023 was 'the worst day of my life'. For the sake of the publishers who paid £300k for the book, I hope there is a lot more meat than this. Coming out as non-binary in Scotland these days is as risqué as getting a tattoo without telling your parents. And Ms Sturgeon has already discussed the tragedy of her miscarriage. Getting your collar felt by the cops when you think you've done nothing wrong would be the worst day in anyone's life. She would, of course have no case to answer. Meanwhile, you might ask why a fierce advocate for Scottish independence chose a London firm to publish her memoir. Pan Macmillan are amongst the world's mightiest and richest publishers and would easily have outbid the single Scottish firm which competed for them. What a message it would have conveyed to Scotland's ailing publishing sector though, if Ms Sturgeon had chosen to be published here. I ask Ms Sturgeon if she has plans to write more books. 'You'd be well-placed to write a decent political thriller,' I tell her. 'Do you think I'd need to portray you in it,' she says with only a hint of menace. 'Well, if you feel you've been too nice in your memoirs, you could settle a few scores under the cover of dramatic fiction,' I reply.
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Scotsman
Caroline Eden on the delights of Central Asia at Edinburgh Book Festival – 'There's just something about that region that draws me back'
Ahead of her Edinburgh Book Festival appearance, writer Caroline Eden talks to David Robinson about the wonders of food and travel in Uzbekistan and beyond Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... In the kitchen of her Edinburgh New Town flat, the setting for the excellent series of travel and food essays in her book Cold Kitchen, I ask Caroline Eden a question which stumped our pub quiz team the previous week. 'Which is the only country with a name ending in -stan that is entirely surrounded by other countries ending in -stan?' We guessed Kyrgyzstan, which shows how little we know about Central Asia. But Eden has written at least four books about the region, so I was fairly confident our interview wouldn't get off to an embarrassing start. Still a risk though.... 'Uzbekistan,' she replied. Phew. Author Caroline Eden at home in Edinburgh. Pic: Lisa Ferguson Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But of course she'd get it right. Because that's where, she tells me, she first started in the travel writing game. 'In 2009 I went there by myself with just three words of Russian. I was in Samarkand, which back then was effectively a closed country. It wasn't easy to get a visa, and when you got there it was a complete police state, you'd got to register at the hotel every night and there were KGB types everywhere. 'I was in this internet cafe in Samarkand, subterranean and full of cigarette smoke, and I pitched to a newspaper in Abu Dhabi because I thought they might be interested in hearing about another Islamic country. And I told them I'd just done this epic trip from Tajikistan over the Pamir Mountains and she said yes, they'd take a piece. 'Back then, the guidebooks said that you'll go hungry if you go to Central Asia and you're a vegetarian. But I just thought that was nonsense. I mean, I'm generally a vegetarian, though in Uzbekistan I might eat what's put in front of me - plov with mutton, for example. But even for vegetarians, there are all sorts of alternatives to meat - delicious breads, good dairy produce, markets full of amazing things like samsa, which are pastry turnovers filled with pumpkin.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She'd been a bookseller for most of her twenties, running the bookshop's non-fiction section, which she now admits mostly meant 'standing by the till reading Dervla Murphy and other female travel writers'. The idea of writing something similar had always been there, and she realised that there was nothing in English about Central Asian cuisine. She'd write the travel essays, she decided, and she asked her friend Eleanor Ford to write the recipes. The resultant book - Samarkand - was published in 2016, won awards the following year, and has never been out of print since. That set the template for what she calls her 'colours trilogy': Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes through Darkness and Light (2018), Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes through Central Asia (2020), and Green Mountains: Walking the Caucasus with Recipes, which came out earlier this year. But although they're all beautifully written and produced, they are both heavy (2.5lbs) and expensive (around £28). In the internet age, with YouTube full of easy-to-follow recipes, doesn't this spell doom? 'Amazingly no. People love cookbooks. I know they're a very analog thing, but people get very attached to certain cookery book writers. Look over at my bookshelf there and you'll see a whole load of books by Diana Henry - and I read her for the same reason everyone else does, because she's not some random food blogger but someone whose recipes you can trust. With writers like me, it's because we know the region we take people to. And my recipes are very simple because I'm a home-taught cook. If I can do it, they can do it.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Not having tried to make any of them myself, I'll have to take her word: I'm there for the writing, not the food. But when it comes to travel writing, I'm very picky: I want to read someone who is curious about what they see without being an intimidating show-off; an affable sort, not a travel bore. All that and just the right amount of enthusiasm and engagement and an easy flowing style. Eden scores highly in all these categories: she would, you can't help thinking, be a great travelling companion. In fact, if there's one problem with Eden's book it's that she is the kind of guide who opens up a subject so well that you can't help wanting to find out more. This makes Cold Kitchen a slow read: Google rabbit holes open up in front of you at every chapter. Writing about Baltic cuisine – unfairly neglected, she points out, and a lot more than a pickle paradise – she made Latvia's capital Riga sound so enticing that I started Googling whether there's a train linking it with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south (as indeed there is: and express trains on it only started running this year). And - to circle back to Uzbekistan - so wonderful does she make their melons sound ('like overripe pears with Bourbon vanilla') that you start to understand why they were once prized by Chinese emperors and why, even today, Uzbeks will go to great lengths to buy them in their November harvest. 'Sadly, you can't buy them here,' she tells me. 'Your best bet would be in Berlin, where there's quite a big Uzbek community.' I interviewed her two days before she headed off back to Central Asia for a month. Another 'colour' book? "No, this is just a holiday. I could go anywhere in the world, but there's just something about that region that draws me back. 'I've always wanted to take a ferry across the Black Sea. I've never been on it, only around it and paddling in it. But there's a three-night ferry all the way across it from Burgas in Bulgaria to Batumi, Georgia's second city. I want to know who's on the ship because a friend of a friend was on it and said the passengers seemed to consist of a delegation of Georgian dentists. I wondered why they didn't fly, so I'll find out. I'm packed and ready to go.' Of course she is. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Caroline Eden's Cold Kitchen is published in paperback by Bloomsbury price £10.99. She will appear at Edinburgh International Book Festival on 12 August at 4pm.
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Fighting talk as school bullies dominate exam curriculum
All other subjects in school seem to have to fight to find a market niche. Mr. Page has the challenge of finding a solution to our school subjects historical boundary status when the 21st century is calling out for young people who can think differently than their fathers and mothers. I doubt if Mr. Page will be persuaded to adopt criterion referenced assessment when our political masters seem so satisfied to competitively rank all our pupils against each other. If 75.9% of Higher grade candidates get an A,B or C pass this year, will our new exam authority give the ones who failed a second chance, perhaps with on-line exams and targeted tutorials? Considering that the Scottish Qualifications Authority have a monopoly, I would have thought a sense of heavy responsibility would outweigh any blame it might transfer to schools. Bill Brown, Milngavie. Read more Testing times I NOTE that once again we are at the 'school exam results' time of the year. As usual, the television reporters present the viewer with scenes of self-congratulation involving both students and their proud parents. Whilst wishing the successful students every success in the next academic stage of their lives, my thoughts turn to their less successful and, no doubt disappointed, peers. One wonders what they made of the congratulatory hysteria? At least they were spared the indignity of exam results being posted in a glass cabinet on the outside of the facility building for the world to see. David Edgar, Biggar. Nothing novel about book festival IT is all very well for Chris Murray MP to request an end to criticism of the Edinburgh Book Festival (''Stop giving Edinburgh Book Festival pelters – or face losing it'', The Herald, July 23) for its choice of authors and ending of its Baillie Gifford sponsorship. Certainly, it is better to have a Book Festival than not to have one. But bullying by a group consisting of the self-satisfied and entitled saw Baillie Gifford, a generous benefactor, withdraw. This was intolerable and needed to be called out. Furthermore, it is incomprehensible that the editors of The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht were not invited this year. Their subject is of great topical interest and does indeed involve ventilating 'ideas', as Mr Murray recommends. The book has been praised, and indeed fêted, but is not good enough for the Edinburgh Book Festival. I can only conclude that the organisers feared there would be a hostile reaction from trans activists if a book of gender realist essays were to feature. That is scarcely admirable. Instead, we have what will undoubtedly be a volume of self-justification, including on gender issues, by Nicola Sturgeon, who seems to have a regular slot at Edinburgh's Festivals. Will this reveal 'ideas' that we haven't already heard ad nauseam? Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh. Go West I DISAGREE with those who mourn the decline of Milngavie (Letters, August 6). One of the top things to do when visiting is to make your way to the start of the West Highland Way. I have no doubt that there are many who got to know of Milngavie because of this feature. I feel that much of the adverse commentary about the area is somewhat overstated. I am sure that there are many who would view it as a privilege to reside there. Ian W Thomson, Lenzie. Poor decision by SNP THE idea that Nicola Sturgeon deserves to be praised for scrapping prescription charges (Letters, August 6) needs to be challenged. In the first place, before this decision was made, most Scots were already eligible for free prescriptions. Only those earning above a certain level had to pay. In other words, despite the repeated claims of Sturgeon and the SNP that those with the broadest shoulders should pay more, they were given this benefit, as were the middle-classes and rich when they received the Winter Fuel Allowance. I find it rather obtuse to celebrate these Sturgeon middle-class freebies as an achievement when the money could have been better spent on the poor. Ian McNair, Cellardyke. Ducking responsibility IN days gone by people who acted in an objectionable way in small communities were thrown in the duck pond. Could this practice be restored in the modern age to deal with those actions which may not require the return of the death penalty, or lifetime imprisonment, but nevertheless irritate and disappoint in disproportionate degree? I have in mind such things as cutting down centuries old sycamore trees, throwing rubbish out car windows, spitting chewing gum on the pavement, leaving dog poo bags dangling from trees etc… Perhaps we could also have these miscreants placed in the stocks for a day of humiliation, attracting the derision of offended citizens. I accept that birching may be a step too far, but the principle still stands. Keith Swinley, Ayr. Spiderman (Tom Holland): Unmasked at last. Superhero swinger is welcome FOR all he's done for us, Spiderman can surely do no wrong, and I'm happy to extend my patience while he diverts the traffic around Glasgow on his visit ("Holland says hi" The Herald, August 6). With Antman arriving at Ibrox, it's like a Marvel team-up (or a conference of entomologists). Last week the film-crew planted the most mahoosive cherry picker I done seen on Wellington St, near to the most annoying defective street light in the city, which has been flickering neurotically for years, high on the side of an office block. Walking past on my way back from my Bath Street jazz club, I almost shouted to the set gaffer on the Spiderman movie, "See while you're up there, pal…?" As a gesture of goodwill, I'm sure it's something a wall-crawling friendly neighbourhood lightbulb replacement service would be happy to oblige. James Macleod, Cardonald.
The Herald Scotland
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Scottish Government strove to be Israel's ‘critical friend'
Opposition politicians have accused the Scottish Government of hypocrisy, saying its private efforts to engage with Israeli officials contradict its public stance on Gaza. Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba said the Swinney administration had "actively sought a meeting with a representative of a state whose prime minister is now wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity". The planned meeting did not go ahead due to what the Israeli Embassy described as "sudden security threats", but a follow-up visit by Israel's deputy ambassador, Daniela Grudsky, was arranged for Thursday August 8. Ms Grudsky met with Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs Angus Robertson in Edinburgh, sparking widespread internal criticism and a furious backlash from SNP MSPs and activists. READ MORE The documents reveal that ministers and senior advisers were closely involved in managing the meeting, with discussions focused on communications strategy and anticipating FOI requests. One official remarked: "Transparency is obviously a good thing, but it takes up such a lot of our time." While the Scottish Government said the August 8 meeting allowed it to express concern about civilian deaths in Gaza, other topics including culture and renewable energy were also discussed. In the redacted minutes released to The Ferret, much of the section on "Israel/Scotland relations" is blacked out. However, the minutes state: "The Scottish Government's position remained that the Palestinian people had the right to self-determination and that a secure Israel should be able to live in peace and security. There was value in dialogue between Scotland and Israel as critical friends." The diplomatic row first came to light when the Israeli embassy tweeted a photo of Ms Grudsky and Mr Robertson on Monday August 12, shortly after the meeting. The backlash grew after it emerged that the Scottish Government had not initially disclosed the visit. Mr Swinney later replaced Mr Robertson at a scheduled Edinburgh Book Festival event with former Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford. In internal discussions days later, Mr Swinney and Mr Robertson agreed to clarify the Government's position, acknowledging the controversy and agreeing that "normal" relations with Israel were not currently possible. Amnesty International said the documents raised questions about whether Mr Robertson strongly challenged Israel over its conduct in Gaza. "It is squarely in the public interest to have absolute clarity," said Amnesty's Liz Thomson. "Such guidance is clearly needed to inform all external affairs activity." In response to the story, Mr Robertson said: "Close to 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza — many more are now being left to starve at the hands of the Israeli government. Civilians who queue to access what little humanitarian aid is permitted to enter Gaza are frequently shot at and killed by Israeli Defence Forces. "The rhetoric of Israeli politicians has become increasingly extreme in recent months. Under such abhorrent circumstances, the Scottish Government is unequivocal that it would not be appropriate to meet with the Israeli government. "This will remain our position until real progress has been made towards peace and Israel co-operates fully with its international obligations on the investigation of genocide and war crimes."
