ART is needed now more than ever to breach the political divides of Brexit, writer Ali Smith has told Scotland’s First Minister.

The author of the acclaimed Autumn and Winter – two books from a planned quartet of contemporary novels – told Nicola Sturgeon that art could be a “unifying force” in the face of division.

The two were speaking in conversation at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where Sturgeon acknowledged that politicians were often the cause of such division.

She said: “As a politician I’m acutely aware, and it’s something I think about a lot, that politicians by definition we’re opinionated, we put forward strong views on policies, we’re sometimes the cause or a cause of the division.

“Also how we communicate now sees to reinforce those divisions, it pushes people to take sides and simplify things.

“Is there a case right now that either through the form of the novel or the perspective of the writer, that perspective is actually much much more needed than perhaps has been in our lifetimes?”

Smith responded: “The novel is a unifying force. All art reminds us to engage and it reminds us to enter, even just with itself, dialogue. Dialogue is the source of life.

“The point at which you actually talk to somebody rather than block that story that’s coming from someone else, the point at which the stories meet and become one story instead of separate stories on competing sides of the walls and fences – which politics across the world at the moment is not just threatening us with, but building.”

Smith said this was “the darkest time that I’ve ever lived in”.

She said: “In our lives, across the world from this country outwards, from the UK outwards it’s a dark, dark premise.

“With nobody interested in the UK Government in those splits... to try to heal the thing that is revealed by Brexit. Everybody vying for power in a way that is absolutely terrifying.”

But she told the First Minister, who said most would recognise to some extent the current time as “a dark place, a worrying place”, that the novel was ultimately a form that gave hope for the future.

Meanwhile, Chelsea Clinton said Sturgeon was “incredibly courageous” for talking about the challenges of being a female leader.

“I think that’s an incredibly courageous thing for her to do – to have that level of candour in public discourse,” she said.

“I think we need more of that, and we should see that as a sign of strength and not remotely a sign of weakness.”

Clinton, who was promoting her children’s book on women who have persisted against adversity, also said she has not ruled out running for office in the future, although she described a move into politics as a “definite no now”.

She said that while she “abhorred” Donald Trump’s presidency, she has no current plans to follow in her parents’ footsteps. She strongly criticised the US leader on issues such as the separation of children from their parents at the Mexican border, branding the policy “the greatest sin of the moment”.

“At federal level as much as I abhor so much of what President Trump is doing, I have a great amount of gratitude for what my congresswoman and my senators are doing to try to stop him at every point,” Clinton said.

“While I disagree with the President, other offices that I could run for I think my family... is being really well represented, but if that were to change, if my city councillor were to retire, if my congresswoman were to retire, my senators, and I thought that I could make a positive impact, then I think I would really have to ask my answer to that question.

“For me it’s a definite no now but it’s a definite maybe in the future because who knows what the future is going to bring?”