Nicola Sturgeon, former Scotland First Minister, is gearing up for the publication of her memoir boldly named “Frankly” in which she says she has poured her heart with candid reflections on her heartbreaks as well as triumphs.
Scottish novelist Andrew Hagan is not sparing with his praise. ‘A triumph. Frankly is the most insightful and stylishly open memoir by a politician since Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father’. Unsurprisingly it has attracted sharp comments from political opponents. The Scottish Conservative deputy leader, said: “Bookshops might have to stock this in their fantasy section given the brass-neck title chosen by Nicola Sturgeon. Unlike the former first minister, Scots won’t forget how her memory suddenly failed her when she was grilled at the Covid and Salmond inquiries or over her role in the ferry scandal.”
J.K. Rowling, a fervent critic of Sturgeon’s gender identity stance has also been volunteering to pitch in with a review.
Sturgeon negotiated a £300,000 advance from publisher Pan MacMillan and has announced she is quitting frontline politics and will not seek re-election next May. Her former husband Peter Murrell, was charged last year in connection with embezzlement of SNP funds. Sturgeon was arrested and released without charge but remains under investigation.
Born 19 July 1970 3.16 pm Irvine, Scotland, she has a late Cancer Sun conjunct Procyon (= rise and fall) conjunct Mars in Leo and Mercury in her communicative and opinionated 9th house in a confident/overly confident square to Jupiter, an intense sextile to Pluto and trine Neptune – making her uber-ambitious as well as lucky. She also has her Neptune opposition Saturn in Taurus in her 7th, described by Ebertin as having a dual character, and a struggle between lower and higher nature. Plus an Aquarius Moon in a short-fused opposition to Mars, trine Uranus and inconjunct a good-at-PR Venus in her 10th.
Publication date has been announced as August 14th which gives an explosive, maybe aggressive/hostile Air Grand Trine of Mars in Libra trine Uranus trine Pluto; with Mars opposition Neptune Saturn and a seriously argumentative Mercury opposition Pluto. It won’t launch quietly, for sure.
Her own chart has lost the frustrating, trapped tr Pluto opposition her Mars and before that her Cancer Sun which have marred the past four years which will be a relief for her. And she does have tr Jupiter moving through her 9th house of publishing and communication this year. But she’ll also be nerve stretched now with her Solar Arc Uranus conjunct her Neptune through this year. Tr Uranus is also opposition her Neptune as well as opposing her calamitous Mars/Pluto midpoint in this December and mid March to mid April 2026. Followed in late 2026/early 2027 by an even more stressful, dead-halt Solar Arc Mars conjunct her Pluto. Her glory days won’t be back anytime soon.
It will be interestng to see if the SNP will manage to be reelected next year despite scandals and setbacks. It is likely there will be a second referendum on independence some day. They got 45% support in the first vote in 2014. In Québec, we got 40% in the first in 1980 and 49.4% in the second in 1995. A third is now in sight if the Québec sovereignty party wins the provincial election in October 2026 as current polling suggests. Unlike Scotland, the Québec government can choose the timing and the question without Ottawa’s consent under current Canadian law. There are contacts between the Québec and Scottish independence movements. Maybe they should coordinate their action and hold their referenda simultaneously. Perhaps also with Greenland and Catalonia.
The glory days won’t be back, but with Jupiter making its way through Cancer, the former first minister may see an expansion of her bank account, house, family and/or waistline, even with the square to Saturn/Neptune.