Did you see the story about the 16-year-old who prefers the 1940s to the present day? Lincoln, from Colchester in Essex, became fascinated with the period after learning about it at school. While other kids are playing video games, he’s out on his (vintage) bike or working in the local antiques shop.

I couldn’t see the attraction at first, but lately I’ve found myself thinking back to another time when no one could be sure what tomorrow might bring. It’s 2014, the year of indyref. Sure, it could be hell, but we knew how to have fun, too. Screaming insults at each other, demonstrating outside the Beeb, a nation divided – happy days. So much better than where we find ourselves today.

We are now T-minus 23 days away from the publication of Frankly, Nicola Sturgeon’s memoirs, and things are already becoming too silly for words. The [[pub]]lishers have been sending out advance copies to “friendly” reviewers in the hope of getting some nice words for the cover. I’m not sure Andrew O’Hagan has done himself, or the former First Minister, any favours with his contribution. “A triumph,” says the author of Mayflies and Caledonian Road. “Frankly is the most insightful and stylishly open memoir by a politician since Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father.”

Sturgeon the new Obama? If only. And what does “stylishly open” mean? That it’s got more holes in it than Rab C Nesbitt’s vest?

JK Rowling has added to the........

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