JK Rowling has launched her latest attack on Nicola Sturgeon, claiming the former First Minister would have been "lighting the pyres" during Scotland's historical witch-burning era.
The Harry Potter author's comments came after Sturgeon was confronted at the Dundee Book Festival about her stance on gender reforms whilst chairing a discussion about witch trials.
Writing on X, Rowling declared: "If Sturgeon had been around in the 1500s she'd have been right there lighting the pyres. 'Ungodly women like this not only blight the crops and turn the milk, they almost certainly put a spell on my husband which made him pilfer all the tithes.'"
The confrontation occurred when lawyer Bryndis Blackadder challenged Sturgeon during a book festival event at the weekend.
The confrontation occurred when lawyer Bryndis Blackadder challenged Sturgeon during a book festival event at the weekend
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Blackadder told Sturgeon her opposition to gender reforms had inspired her to retrain in law.
She was booed by the audience when she said: "I've spent years being called a witch for fighting for women's rights. I do not understand how you can sit here and have the cognitive dissonance of trying to diminish women in legislation."
The incident sparked immediate reaction on social media, with policy analyst Lisa Mackenzie highlighting what she called Sturgeon's "cognitive dissonance" regarding women's rights.
Rowling's comment was in response to Lisa Mackenzie from Murray Blackburn Mackenzie policy analysis, who wrote on X: "Sturgeon is desperate to associate herself with a campaign to pardon women accused and persecuted of witchcraft hundreds of years ago but cannot see the irony in her own repeated trouncing of women who stand up for sex based rights in the here and now."
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Blackadder told Sturgeon her opposition to gender reforms had inspired her to retrain in law
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The author and former SNP leader have been on opposite sides of the gender debate for years. Rowling famously wore a T-shirt describing Sturgeon as a "destroyer of women's rights" during their long-running dispute over gender reform legislation.
The book festival event featured authors Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi discussing their new book, How to Kill a Witch: A Guide for the Patriarchy, with Sturgeon chairing the discussion.
In 2022, Sturgeon made a formal apology to people accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries, many of whom were executed.
It is thought 4,000 Scots, most of them women, were accused of breaking the Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736.
In a statement at Holyrood, Sturgeon said those accused under the act "were not witches, they were people and they were overwhelmingly women".
This follows a string of high-profile spats involving JK Rowling on X, with the most recent erupting between the author and pop icon Boy George
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This follows a string of high-profile spats involving Rowling on X, with the most recent erupting between the author and pop icon Boy George.
The latest clash began when a user accused Rowling of being “the person maybe most responsible for the push to take away trans rights.”
Rowling replied bluntly: “Which rights have been taken away from trans people?”
Her response sparked backlash, including from Boy George, who weighed in by calling the Harry Potter author a “rich bored bully.”
That jibe triggered a sharp retort from Rowling, who referenced the singer’s criminal past: “I’ve never been given 15 months for handcuffing a man to a wall and beating him with a chain.”
Rowling’s pointed comment referred to Boy George’s 2009 conviction for false imprisonment, when he was jailed after chaining a male escort to a wall and assaulting him with a chain.
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