Booknotes
A memoir and political-book companion that lets readers track what political figures are actually saying in their memoirs — and compare those claims to court records, contemporaneous reporting, and prior public statements.
Politics readers, journalists, and political book club members who want to interrogate politician memoirs rather than take them at face value
- Claim-by-claim annotation layer that flags passages in a memoir and pairs each with linked primary sources, court filings, or prior interviews
- Book-vs-record comparison view, so when Sturgeon writes 'I did not know about the camper van' readers can see the timeline of media coverage of that vehicle
- Reading-group mode with discussion questions written for political memoir readers rather than literary readers
- Citation generator for journalists and writers referencing specific memoir passages
The Sturgeon memoir is in the news specifically because of the contrast between her claims and the Murrell case; an app built to surface that tension is exactly what readers want right now.
Sturgeon memoir/Murrell news is real and active in UK press right now (Telegraph, Herald Scotland, Scottish Sun, Daily Mail), but it is a single-news-cycle spike rather than sustained niche demand; general political-memoir readership exists but fact-checking companions are niche.Nicola Sturgeon promotes book as Peter Murrell in prison ↗Nicola Sturgeon claims she knew nothing, saw nothing and will apologise ↗
General AI fact-checking tools for journalists exist (Yenra list, IJNet, PickYourAITool) but none combine a memoir reading-companion with claim-vs-court-record/prior-statement comparison; that specific intersection looks unoccupied.AI Journalism Fact-Checking Tools: 12 Advances (2026) - Yenra ↗5 AI-powered fact-checking tools for journalists ↗
Direct pricing evidence for a political-memoir companion was not found; fact-checking tools are typically free or newsroom-licensed, and reading apps use freemium — willingness-to-pay for this specific combination is unproven.Frankly - Wikipedia ↗
Political memoir publishing is cyclical and durable, and court records/permanent archives give the comparison layer long shelf life, but relevance hinges on whatever memoir scandal is in the news at any given moment.
Court/judgment records (PACER-style) are accessible but cross-jurisdictional (UK/Scotland vs US) coverage, contemporaneous-archive scraping, and reliable claim-to-statement matching are non-trivial engineering work.