The great contemporary master of the vituperative and coruscatory arts is J.K. Rowling. Formerly known as author of the Harry Potter stories, she may well become one of the great or indeed few exponents of the high art of writing for victory. Especially in the form of the riposte. Repost and riposte.
Her current enemy, or antagonist, is Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon is a Scot; Rowling is long resident in Scotland. Rowling is beloved of unionists. Sturgeon, according to my father, who is a Scot, is disliked even by nationalists. But Sturgeon has recently written her own wee stoury, entitled, hilariously, Frankly. Tom Stoppard once wrote a play called If You’re Glad, Then I’ll Be Frank. But now things are the other way round. For now that Sturgeon is frank, Rowling has become very glad.
By the way, what a title.
Have you noticed the way our political women entitle their memoirs?
- Michelle Obama in 2018: Becoming, a nice Hegelian title, if a bit vacuous for a memoir as opposed to the third bit of a logical treatise. Followed up by the equally inspirational The Light We Carry of 2022.
- Hillary Clinton who used to be Living History in 2003, then noticed her Hard Choices in 2014, before asking What Happened in 2017 before finally arriving at the less hard-faced Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love and Liberty.
- Angela Merkel in 2024: Freedom, of course, originally entitled Freiheit.
- Jacinda Arden in 2025: A Different Kind of Power.
- Nicola Sturgeon in 2025: Frankly.
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