JK Rowling and the deathly book review - it's in fine company

There's nothing quite like a real stinker of a review.

- Erica Wagner

You raise an eyebrow as the first few sentences sink in; then go make a cup of tea so you can really get stuck into some ripe score-settling. I mean - frankly - did you think JK Rowling was going to like Nicola Sturgeon's memoir, Frankly? Quite.

Let's just say the two have differences of opinion when it comes to the questions of Scottish independence and gender identity/self-ID: it's hardly surprising that Rowling was going to weigh in. Like Taylor Swift, the Harry Potter creatrix has no need for the likes of us here at a newspaper and published her 2,800-word screed on her own website.

"The only time Sturgeon makes what I think is supposed to be a joke is when she says of a teenage boyfriend, 'His nickname was Sparky (he wasn't an aspiring electrician).'"

You get the idea. No reader who knows anything of the pair's history is going to be startled by Rowling's take on the former first minister; this is personal, no doubt about it.

The bad review is an art form. Who can forget James Wood claiming that Kazuo Ishiguro's