In 2008 JK Rowling gave an address to Harvard graduates that was acclaimed for its power and erudition. I read it at the time and was impressed.
Its two main themes were failure and imagination. She spoke of the former as a catalyst for learning, stressing the need to empathise with others and not to live within a cocoon. She warned against those who “choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are”.
She also dwelt on her mental health being affected whilst working at Amnesty International. There she interviewed survivors of killing and torture to the extent that “I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read”.
Now fast forward 17 years to the JK Rowling of 2025. The one who published a supposed "critique" of Nicola Sturgeon’s biography but which in reality consisted of little more than a litany of personal abuse about the former First Minister set alongside derogatory comments about transwomen.
Conspicuously absent was a lack of empathy for others, especially for the "literal nightmares" Ms Sturgeon was experiencing as a result of having to stand in front of the cameras every day during Covid to announce the latest death toll. The First Minister also found herself accused of somehow being personally responsible for these deaths.
However, instead of offering sympathy based on her own experiences Ms Rowling opines: “Her English fans can’t be expected to know about every single clusterf*** over which the supposedly competent Sturgeon presided.”
Transwomen fare little better, being somewhat simplistically described as merely men who “put on dresses and call themselves women”. No attempt there at encouraging people “to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are”.
Last but not least we have the dreadful irony of somebody whose power and wealth are derived from her ability to communicate with children now having to post a warning that her latest publication is not suitable for a young audience due to the sheer level of profanities contained therein.
I have but one question. Which of the above is the real JK Rowling?
Robert Menzies, Falkirk.
Read more letters
- Sturgeon is no feminist: she tried hard to destroy women's rights
- London calling, but what does Sturgeon leave behind?
- Let's hope Nicola's book reminds us of her many achievements
Why Sturgeon was feared
Day after relentless day, your Letters Pages have been dominated by outpourings of bile directed at Nicola Sturgeon; anyone would think the woman had started an illegal war.
During her time in government, Ms Sturgeon introduced policies rooted in social justice, worked tirelessly to keep us safe during the pandemic and tried to make life easier for a small minority of people. Going by the level of nasty, sneering comments, she was clearly feared by unionists as an effective operator, and did a very good job.
Ruth Marr, Stirling.
Character assassination
Reading your correspondents’ daily litany of complaints about Nicola Sturgeon’s nine years as First Minister (and leaving aside the small fact that she is still alive), I can’t help but reflect on Marc Antony’s famous oration following the assassination of Julius Caesar – “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”
Cue your correspondents’ comparisons of Ms Sturgeon and Caesar perhaps?
Iain Stuart, Glasgow.
False depiction of a humanitarian
It is disappointing that an academic would attempt to misrepresent context in order to promote personal views and to denigrate our first female First Minister.
Dr Mireille Pouget (Letters, August 19) makes reference to “Ms Sturgeon accusing women who disagreed with her of being not just transphobic, but probably racist too, and misogynistic”, but this is misleading as it is a different statement from what Nicola Sturgeon actually said: “There are people who have opposed this bill that cloak themselves in women's rights to make it acceptable, but just as they're transphobic you'll also find that they're deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well.”
It would be naïve to believe that this statement applies to women in general and that it is not aimed at far-right protagonists and extremist groups such as the US anti-abortion lobby which has attempted to undermine legislation here in Scotland. The statement that “she tried very hard to destroy women’s rights” is not only misleading but mischaracterises a humanitarian who as First Minister worked hard to help and protect the rights of the poor, the disadvantaged and the marginalised in our hopefully increasingly-compassionate society.
Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.
Beware the rise of battery parks
There is rightly growing anger at the ever-increasing steel forests of pylons, turbines, and substations scarring our countryside to feed distant demand. Yet a far graver threat looms unnoticed: the monstrous battery parks propping up intermittent wind power.
To bridge one windless day in Britain, estimates demand 100-200 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of storage – enough to power six million homes for 24 hours. That’s millions of electric car-sized batteries. A week-long lull? Multiply that nightmare several times over.
These aren’t gentle giants. They devour lithium, cobalt, and nickel, ripped from the earth in ruinous, exploitative mines across the DRC, Indonesia, and China. Rivers poisoned, landscapes gutted, 40,000 children toiling in cobalt mines – all to prop up Britain’s hollow “clean” energy mirage.
Worse, lithium-ion battery parks are ticking time bombs. Fires, like those in California and South Korea, rage uncontrollably, spewing toxic fumes and defying suppression. Who’d welcome such a menace near their home?
The cost? Astronomical. The UK’s push for vast battery capacity by 2030 carries a price tag of tens of billions – every penny heaped onto taxpayers and households through crippling bills.
Wind power is peddled as cheap and green, yet the Labour and SNP governments push ahead with this reckless agenda, blind to its failures. Sky-high energy costs – the highest in Europe – plunge 5.6 million households into fuel poverty, close businesses, and drive reliance on imported energy, materials, and finished goods from nations scoffing at our environmental standards, gutting our net-zero ambitions and impoverishing us all. This isn’t progress; it’s folly, a betrayal of families and industries for a green dogma that exports emissions and imports ruin. The truth – rampant mining, hazardous storage, obscene costs – demands exposure. Until politicians dismantle the myth of wind as a silver bullet, their policies deserve our utter contempt.
Ian Lakin, Aberdeen.
Aitken should focus on Glasgow
I am sure the leader of Glasgow City Council's plea for financial assistance to help migrants is heartfelt and perhaps true ("I am proud of Glasgow's welcome – but we need help before we break", The Herald, August 18) but I will not be alone in thinking she should concentrate on core local services.
I look out of my front window and see broken, hazardous pavements, litter everywhere, endless road works and blocked water drains. I look out of my side window and I see vomit that has been there for days. I look out of my back window and see bins overflowing with rubbish ... and this is in the "posh" West End.
Susan Aitken needs to recognise that failure abounds on the streets of her beloved Glasgow and should sort it before her constituents start kicking up a fuss. Migrant issues can be left to "national" politicians, to probably bags up, admittedly.
James Miller, Glasgow.
But what about Gaza?
I find the excitable media commentators reporting about the Euro-leader group trip to Washington utterly bemusing. The ongoing slaughter of their fellow journalists in Gaza, along with the civilian population never elicits that kind of response. Are they all cowed by the possibility of being accused of being terrorist sympathisers?
Was it too much to have hope that these very busy leaders might have mentioned Gaza since they are able to prioritise the concerns of a country which has only lost 13,000 civilians in three and a half years in contrast to more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in just under half the time?
Seriously, it looks as if our foreign policy is led by the recipients of our armaments largesse; it would be very interesting to quantify European aid to both Ukraine and Israel.
Meanwhile the "free world" is led by a puerile narcissist who can't even write a sentence without inappropriate capital letters.
Marjorie Thompson, Edinburgh.
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