JK Rowling reignited her bitter feud with Nicola Sturgeon today after penning a searing ‘review’ of the ex-Scottish leader’s new autobiography.
The former Scottish First Minister’s memoir, ‘Frankly’, hit shelves this week but has seen her ridiculed after fawning reviews compared her to Barack Obama.
Now, the ex-SNP boss’s old nemesis, Harry Potter author Rowling, has once again taken a potshot at Ms Sturgeon by trolling her in a ruthless post online.
It’s the latest clash in a long-running feud between the two women over transgender rights which dates back more than three years.
Seemingly resuming the war of words, Rowling focused her tirade on a segment in the memoir in which the ‘heroine [Sturgeon] opines on the need to make the ‘public sphere’ safe for women and girls’.
Accompanying the post is a picture of Sturgeon’s autobiography in which Rowling scrawled across the top of the page: ‘Are you f***ing kidding me???’
She added: ‘Annotating as I read to review. Might auction my scribbled-on copy, proceeds to go to. NB: nobody who’s offended by swearing should bid.’
The multi-millionaire author’s post comes a day after she tore into Sturgeon during a fierce attack on X over their long-running row about transgender rights.
JK Rowling has revealed her foul-mouthed ‘review’ of Nicola Sturgeon’s autobiography
Former SNP leader Sturgeon has been in a public war of words with the Harry Potter author for years over their clashing views on transgender issues (Sturgeon is seen unboxing a copy of her autobiography, Frankly)
Accompanying the post is a picture of Sturgeon’s autobiography in which Rowling (pictured) scrawled across the top of the page: ‘Are you f***ing kidding me???’
It followed a car crash TV interview in which Sturgeon claimed anyone who rapes a woman ‘forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice’ – while struggling to answer fresh questions about transgender prisoner, Isla Bryson.
”We’ve lost all sense of rationality in [the gender] debate,” said Nicola Sturgeon,’ Rowling wrote. ‘Only one side has lost rationality. Only one side pretends there’s more than two sexes. Only one side lets male rapists into women’s prisons. Only one side supports child sterilisation. Yours.’
Rowling, who is a staunch women’s rights activist and has been furiously critical of the transgender movement, previously offered her services to ‘review’ her old foe’s autobiography in a tongue-in-cheek post on her social media.
It followed one fawning review of the book, which dubbed it a ‘triumph’, and added: ”Frankly’ is the most insightful and stylishly open memoir by a politician since Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father.’
‘I am available to review Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir,’ children’s writer JK Rowling later announced. ‘No fee required, as long as you don’t edit out the swear words.’
Today’s post by Rowling, slating Sturgeon’s memoir, is the latest broadside levelled at the former First Minister by the Harry Potter creator, who has a net worth of around £945million.
In 2022, Rowling wore a T-shirt which branded Sturgeon a ‘destroyer of women’s rights’ in protest against the Scottish Government’s gender recognition reform laws, which were later blocked by the UK Government.
The move prompted Sturgeon to call for those with strong views to ‘treat each other with respect’.
Ms Rowling wore a T-shirt which branded Ms Sturgeon a ‘destroyer of women’s rights’ in 2022
When Ms Sturgeon refused to comment on the Supreme Court gender ruling in April, Ms Rowling hit out again
Sturgeon’s autobiography hit the shelves earlier this month. It is currently rated a number one best seller on Amazon’s women’s biographies section
She said: ‘I have always thought that on this issue, where people have very strong views, we should all try to treat each other with respect and that is what I will continue to do.’
The row escalated after a landmark Supreme Court ruling in April, which clarified that a woman is biologically female for the purposes of equalities laws, when Rowling compared Sturgeon to Pontius Pilate, who ordered Jesus’ crucifixtion.
After Sturgeon refused to comment on the ruling, Ms Rowling mocked her silence by sharing a social media selfie of the Glasgow MSP in the gym on Easter Monday calling her ‘Pontius Pilates’.
In the Bible, Pontius Pilate did not believe that Jesus had committed a crime but condemned him to death because the crowd called for it.
And last month, after Sturgeon chaired a discussion about the witch trials in Scotland, Rowling hit out at her adversary again.
She said: ‘If Sturgeon had been around in the 1500s she’d have been right there lighting the pyres.
‘Ungodly women like this not only blight the crops and turn the milk, they almost certainly put a spell on my husband which made him pilfer all the tithes.’
The author has consistently stuck up for women’s rights in recent years – and has even pledged to personally fund gender-critical legal actions.
The ‘fighting fund’ is helping women who have lost their livelihoods or are facing employment tribunals because of their views on sex-based rights.
The criteria covers those who ‘don’t have adequate means to bring actions to court or to defend themselves’.
It was publicly announced in May after prisoner Jane Sutherley said she was considering suing the Scottish Prison Service after she was forced to share facilities with transgender women.
JK Rowling previously released of photo of her smoking and drinking booze after celebrating the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year, which gave a legal definition for the term ‘woman’
Ms Sturgeon’s 470-page book is officially released on Thursday, when she is due to talk about it at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
In revelations in the new book, Ms Sturgeon:
* Admitted that the controversy over her botched bid to force through gender reforms was ‘one of the most bruising episodes’ of her entire time in politics and that she ‘lost the dressing room’ over trans rapist Isla Bryston being sent to a women’s prison.
* Condemned JK Rowling’s ‘Sturgeon, destroyer of women’s right’ t-shirt as a ‘stunt’ and claimed it ‘was never going to elevate the debate or illuminate the issues at the heart of it’.
* Described a phone call with US President Donald Trump as being like ‘a bad acid dream’
* Revealed that the late Sir Sean Connery gave her speaking lessons and told her she should deepen her voice.
* Said she ‘felt sick’ reading about sex pest minister Derek Mackay’s approach to a schoolboy but still counts him as a ‘friend’.
Ms Sturgeon, who is standing stand down as an MSP next year, admitted she remained ‘haunted’ by the decisions she took – and didn’t take – during the Covid pandemic.
Even thinking about the period unleashed ‘a torrent of emotion’, she said.
She described it as the hardest period of her career, adding: ‘I still agonise over what I might have done differently. I think part of me always will.’
But it would ultimately be for ‘history’ to judge whether the right calls were made on testing care home patients, infection controls and lockdown.
