Jo Swinson's Equal Power was one of my best reads of this year. I have now bought or won four copies of the thing – one on my Kindle, one real one and two to give away. Last weekend, I spent a small fortune on yet another at the Edinburgh West dinner. It is a book that everyone should read. It's not just a book, it's an action plan. Jo is never one to underestimate anyone's capacity for work, so she shows us how we can be the change we want to see.
This afternoon, Jo Swinson will be speaking at the "Aye Write" book festival in Glasgow.
When Jo Swinson was a teenager, studying at Douglas Academy in Milngavie, she was awarded the Senior Dux prize for achievement, and was given a trophy plus a book of her choice. What she opted for, as she describes in her book Equal Power: And How You Can Make It Happen, was a popular title by Kate White, a journalist who would later go on to edit Cosmopolitan. It was called Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead But Gutsy Girls Do.
She also explained why she had not gone for the Lib Dem leadership last year.