He has never been a man to take defeat lying down.
No sooner had former SNP leader Alex Salmond lost his seat in the 2017 snap general election than he decided to rebrand himself as a one-man act at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
It didn't take long for the politician to develop a taste for the spotlight. Later that year, he launched The Alex Salmond Show on the Kremlin-funded channel RT for an undisclosed fee.
Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond is pictured leaving Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday after he was arrested and charged with, among others, multiple counts of sexual assault and two of attempted rape
Deaf to the protestations of former colleagues who pointed out he was working for Vladimir Putin's propaganda channel – and unbothered by Ofcom's ruling that the very first instalment breached its regulations – the show still goes on air every week.
If any of Salmond's friendly image still remained, it finally collapsed last year when details were leaked of a Scottish government investigation into allegations of sexual harassment made against him by two women civil servants when he was First Minister.
While Scottish politicians distanced themselves from him, Salmond was robust in fighting to clear his name.
During his legal battle he twice refused to answer questions about whether he had been drinking at the time of the alleged incidents.
But when he set up a crowd-funding appeal to cover his legal costs, supporters rallied to him and donated more than £100,000 in a few days.
![It didn’t take long for the politician to develop a taste for the spotlight. Later that year, he launched The Alex Salmond Show on the Kremlin-funded channel RT for an undisclosed fee [File photo]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/24/22/8956166-6629911-image-a-4_1548369313296.jpg)
It didn't take long for the politician to develop a taste for the spotlight. Later that year, he launched The Alex Salmond Show on the Kremlin-funded channel RT for an undisclosed fee [File photo]
A street fighter, he won his judicial review on technical grounds when the courts ruled the government's inquiry had been 'procedurally unfair' and 'tainted with apparent bias'.
With this victory, no doubt Salmond had hoped he could go back to his budding television career.
But yesterday, an ashen-faced Salmond returned to court, where he now faces charges of, among others, multiple counts of sexual assault and two of attempted rape.
He looked a different person from the man who, on losing his Commons defeat in the SNP's worst electoral defeat in years, declared: 'You've not seen the last of my bonnet and me.'
Not even Salmond, one of the most dominant figures in British politics for more than two decades, could have predicted how those few words would return to haunt him in such spectacular fashion.
Salmond displayed a gambler's instinct when it came to politics, which came as no surprise to those who knew him as a child. He made his first wager on the horses aged nine and for several years was racing tipster for a Scottish newspaper
Few politicians, with the exception of Ukip's Nigel Farage, have done so much to mould the image of the party they led.
In his two terms as leader of Scottish Nationalists, Salmond was instrumental in orchestrating the party's dominance in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, where it became the country's premier political force for the first time in 50 years.
But not all his colleagues talk fondly of his time in charge. Many in the SNP recall his ferocious temper, his arrogance and his intolerance of mistakes. There are also mutterings that he relies on a tiny cabal of advisers – as well as having admitted to liking gambling and drinking.
It's unsurprising, therefore, that his time as First Minister wasn't without controversy.
An avid fan of Indian food, he liked to be driven in his ministerial limousine to visit his
