An almighty shock Politician who chose moment to take back control of her story

For those close friends who got a text from Nicola Sturgeon in F the hours before she publicly announced her resignation as Scotland's first minister, it was the timing and not the fact of her departure that came as the almighty shock.

- Libby Brooks

But Sturgeon is a woman who likes to craft her own narrative. For months the first minister has been buffeted by decisions not of her making - the supreme court ruling that she cannot hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval, the UK government blocking Holyrood's gender recognition bill as domestic headwinds around the NHS, education and transport grew ever more unfavourable.

And so on a lacklustre spring morning in the middle of recess, she seized back control of her own story with a delicately detonated political bombshell. She leaves her party with no obvious successor and those same challenges unresolved - and herself, at 52, as she stressed today, with plenty of road ahead of her.

The superlatives flooded in from supporters and opponents alike - describing Scotland's first female first minister, who has led her party to political dominance for nearly a decade, as "formidable", "unparalleled" and "tireless".

So began the inevitable parsing of her resignation speech, itself praised for its honesty and humility - particularly in contrast to recent UK prime ministerial resignations. Those familiar with Sturgeon's sensibility were mindful too of recent remarks from the former New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern, someone with whom Sturgeon is known to feel a kinship.

That Sturgeon was ready to leave the role she has occupied since she seamlessly replaced her predecessor Alex Salmond in 2014 was no secret. For at least 18 months, she has been dropping regular hints and allusions to her post-Holyrood future: telling Vogue in October 2021 that she and her husband, the SNP's chief executive Peter Murrell, had discussed fostering, and the Guardian in August 2022 that she looked forward to "not feeling as if you're on public display all the time".

All of this seemed jarring for a politician who was also claiming to be up for the fight over a second referendum and the gender bill.