THE editor of an upcoming book of Nicola Sturgeon's speeches has said he aims to show "Nicola Sturgeon in depth removed from party differences".
Women Hold Up Half the Sky, produced by Scottish publisher Sandstone press, is to be published on May 10 - four days after the Holyrood elections
Published independently of the Scottish Government and the SNP, the book covers the First Minister's speeches from when she was elected in 2014 to when the UK left the EU in February 2020.
Editor Bob Davidson told The National: "I did research into the First Minister’s speeches and they were wide, varied and detailed. I thought they could show the breadth of Nicola Sturgeon’s thinking but also what the Scottish Parliament is capable of and is delivering."
The collection contains 40 speeches, whittled down from the 120 Davidson researched, on a range of topics such as diversity, gender, human rights, poverty, climate change and the media. The talks took place in areas all over the world including Washington DC, Beijing, Reykjavík, Stanford University, London, Brussels and Dublin where she was the first member of a government to speak at the Senate, excluding Irish politicians.
The speeches include Sturgeon's vision for the Highlands and Islands given on the Isle of Skye, the Cardinal Thomas Winning lecture at Glasgow University on Catholic education in Scotland and her speech at the European Policy Centre in Brussells on Scotland's future after Brexit.
Davidson said the standout speeches in the collection are the FM's comments on refugee rights after three-year-old Alan Kurdi was found washed up on a beach in Turkey, the importance of truth in the media and political debate talk given to a conference at Strathclyde University and Jimmy Reid Memorial Lecture at Glasgow University which outlined the Scottish Government’s opposition to the UK Government’s Trade Union Bill.
He added: "The crucial point of this book is the voice of the Scottish Parliament. Nicola Sturgeon speaks for us in great heartedness and fairness.
"It gives a distinct historical era – if we look at it now from present times we have perspective on it. It's not about the current political party knockout.
"The book will be Nicola Sturgeon in depth and that picture that rises is removed from party differences and First Minister’s Questions.
"By providing recent speeches as reading material we can present a portrait of the First Minister."
READ MORE: 10 things that changed my life: Bob Davidson, Sandstone Press managing director
Davidson said he has been thinking about the project for years but that publishing the book in May after the Holyrood elections, where the SNP is expected to have a landslide win, is ideal timing because "we’ll be thinking about indyref2 and Scotland’s route back into the EU".
"It will nourish people on both sides," he continued. "Scottish political literature such as biographies of politicians all tend to look at parliament but for the first time we have a voice from parliament speaking to Scots and the world and putting the nation on an international spectrum of interest.
"Nicola Sturgeon is respected throughout the world but sometimes I think she is respected more elsewhere than here."
The book is available to preorder on Amazon and will soon be available to pre-order on the Sandstone press website.
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