They have long been locked in a bitter war of words over the gender debate.
Now author JK Rowling has penned a scathing review of Nicola Sturgeon’s hotly anticipated memoirs on the day it was officially launched.
The Harry Potter author, who famously wore a t-shirt labelling the former first minister a ‘destroyer of women’s rights’, posted the expletive-riddled assessment of ‘Frankly’ on her website last night.
Ms Rowling tore into the former First Minister’s ‘stubborn’ attachment to her controversial gender reform legislation, her inability to face up to her failures in office and ‘Trumpian’ accounts of political events.
She then also compared Sturgeon to Bella Swan from the vampire film series Twilight – and attached what appeared to be an AI-generated image to illustrate that.
The women’s right campaigner wrote: ‘She remains stubbornly wedded to her belief that it is possible to let some men into women’s spaces on the men’s say so, without letting any man who fancies it come inside.
‘She denies there are any risks to a policy of gender self-identification. She can’t imagine any male predator capitalising on such policies, in spite of the fact that it has, demonstrably, happened many times.
‘She is flat out Trumpian in her shameless denial of reality and hard facts.’
Rowling continued: ‘While Sturgeon is focused on making sure no hurty sexist words penetrate hers, she’s entirely dismissive of the harms done in actual physical spaces, where she expected nurse Sandie Peggie to deal with a heavy menstrual flood in front of a cosplaying man, and vulnerable female prisoners to accept being incarcerated with trans-identified male sex offenders.
‘The First Minister, with her police protection, her carefully monitored official residence and her chauffeured car just couldn’t see what these bigots were making a fuss about.’
Author JK Rowling took no prisoners in her review of Nicola Sturgeon’s memoirs
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, with broadcaster Kirsty Wark ahead of the Edinburgh International Book Festival launch event of her memoir ‘Frankly’
The best-selling author said it was only when the double rapist Isla Bryson burst into the news that the FM was lost of words.
Ms Rowling said: ‘The First Minister, whose composure and articulacy under fire had, for years, been her most potent political asset, made herself look – and forgive me for employing a PR term here – a complete f******.
‘Of course, the blame for her looking like a complete f****** lies with others. Nobody had warned her about Bryson, you see.’
‘If you’re prepared to accept the foundational falsehood that some men are women, you’ll inevitably find yourself panicking like a pheasant caught in headlights one day.’
Ms Rowling also addressed claims Sturgeon made in her book about the vile abuse the politician had received.
The best-selling author said: ‘Eleven years ago, when she and I found ourselves on opposite sides of a different public debate, I didn’t hold her accountable for all the threats I received from nationalists, nor for the porn her supporters circulated, with my face pasted onto a naked actress’s body.
‘As the gender wars have raged, I have not accused her of emboldening the kind of ‘activist’ whose threats against me have twice necessitated police action.’
‘Notwithstanding all the ruminating on sexism and misogyny Sturgeon does in Frankly, always as it affects her personally, she is unshakeable in her belief that if men put on dresses and call themselves women they can only be doing so with innocent motives.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon at the launch of her memoir ‘Frankly’, at Edinburgh International Book Festival
JK Rowling shared a picture on social media where she had written a note on Nicola Sturgeon’s book
‘Sturgeon hasn’t been remotely humbled by the Supreme Court ruling that proved her government was forcing a misinterpretation of the UK-wide Equality Act on Scotland, one that robbed women of many single sex spaces and of their very existence as a definable class with rights protected in law.’
And Ms Rowling, who reveals that her doctor husband once ran a methadone clinic for drug addicts, hit out at what the ex FM fails to even mention in the memoir.
Ms Rowling said: ‘The mysteriously vanished government WhatsApp messages from the pandemic, the tanking educational outcomes, the CalMac Ferry disaster, the disappearance of a half a million pounds of her own supporters’ money that was supposedly ringfenced for a new independence referendum: you’ll search in vain for candid accounts of these in Frankly; indeed, most aren’t mentioned at all.
‘Perhaps the most disgraceful omission – and I’ll admit to a personal interest here, because I’m married to a doctor who used to run a methadone clinic, so saw the national scandal up close – is the fact that Scotland continues to lead the whole of Europe in drug deaths.’
And she compares the MSP to Bella Swan in the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer.
Ms Rowling wrote: ‘The heroine of Twilight, a shy, awkward, bookish girl, moves to a small, rainswept town called Forks to live with her single father.
‘In doing so, she unknowingly takes her first step towards a staggeringly unlikely future nobody could have predicted.
‘The heroine of Frankly is also a shy, awkward, bookish girl who lives in a small, rainswept town.
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
‘About to turn seventeen, she approaches a bungalow in Dreghorn, knocks on the door of the SNP candidate for her constituency, and asks if she can help with canvassing.’
‘Nicola Sturgeon, unlike the eventually undead Bella Swan, isn’t a Good Vampire at all.
‘She’s caused real, lasting harm by presiding over and encouraging a culture in which women have been silenced, shamed, persecuted and placed in situations that are degrading and unsafe, all for not subscribing to her own luxury beliefs.’
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, on Tuesday 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.
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.
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)
JK Rowling at the Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore premiere in London in 2022
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon following First Minister’s Questions earlier this year
‘”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.’
Rowling’s review 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’.
Accompanying a previous 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???’
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.
