Sturgeon opens the book on arrest, Rowling and panic

Millie Cooke looks at the key takeaways from the former Scottish first minister's explosive new memoir 'Frankly'

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From being interviewed under caution as part of Operation Branchform to leading a failed bid for Scottish independence, Nicola Sturgeon's time in office - and the years after it – were far from ordinary.

In her long-awaited memoir, Frankly, the former Scottish first minister details how it felt to have police raid the home she shared with her ex-husband Peter Murrell, as well as shedding light on her relationship with her predecessor Alex Salmond and the row over trans rights that dominated her final months in the job.

Here, The Independent looks at the key takeaways from Ms Sturgeon’s explosive memoir.

'Utter disbelief' when police raided her home

The former SNP leader has outlined her overwhelming emotions when her home became the subject of a police raid over a probe into the SNP’s finances that culminated in the arrest of her then husband in April 2024. She said she felt “utter disbelief” when the raid took place.

“With police tents all around it, it looked more like a murder scene than the place of safety it had always been for me. I was devastated, mortified, confused and terrified”, she wrote.

The weeks that followed, Ms Sturgeon said, felt like she had “fallen into the plot of a dystopian novel”.

She also said her arrest, which took place two months later, was “the worst day” of her life and described it as an experience she is “not sure [she] will ever get over”. Ms Sturgeon was later exonerated, but Mr Murrell has been charged with embezzlement.

The trans row that dominated her final months in office

Ms Sturgeon also used her memoir to shed light on the division over trans rights that dominated her final months in office, something she described as being a time of “rancour and division”.