Throwing the book (festival) at John Swinney - Susan Dalgety

No book festival is safe from her, and she is happy to venture as far south as Sussex to promote herself.

Nicola Sturgeon and Val McDermid at a book event in December

But the First Minister is catching up. Last year, he appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with his Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford to discuss 25 years of devolution, and this year he is heading to the Borders Book Festival, where he will talk about his life in books.

The blurb for the event breathlessly announced that the First Minister will share the books that “shaped his thinking, politics and personal life in a rare, revealing conversation.”

I cannot wait. Or maybe I can. John Swinney has never in his 25 years in frontline politics suggested that he has anything interesting to say beyond “Scotland should be independent.”

Unlike Nicola Sturgeon, whose memoir Frankly will be published in August, just in time for the Edinburgh Festival, Swinney doesn’t even have a book to sell, which begs the question: what is he doing appearing at a book festival?

I am not a purist and am quite happy for non-writers such as scientists, actors and even politicians to put in the occasional appearance at book festivals. After all, what John Swinney thinks and does and which books inform his thinking and approach should be of interest.

He is a powerful man, determined to persuade Scots to leave the UK. I want to know what the man whose main ambition is to break up my country thinks, but I want him to tell me from his seat in the Scottish Parliament, not pay £16 (plus booking fee) to listen to him in a tent.

But at least John Swinney is not charging people to meet him before he sits down with interviewer, Michael Moore, a former MP.

Nicola Sturgeon is hosting an event in the Usher Hall in October to promote her book and is offering people the chance to meet her beforehand – if they are willing to stump up £75 a head for the privilege.

Now that is what I call a brass neck.