GETTING TO KNOW MURIEL SPARK

2018 is a year of important centenaries as we remember the end of the First World War and also women in Great Britain and Northern Ireland being granted steps in the right to vote. However, a literary centenary that may be passing beneath your radar are celebrations to commemorate Dame Muriel Spark’s birth. An initiative designed to introduce her work to a whole new audience.

Who was Dame Muriel Spark?

Spark was born in Edinburgh and is recognised at both home and abroad as one of the finest novelists of the last century. Her sharp witty prose earned her a place amongst the crème de la crème of Scottish writers. Dame Maggie Smith starred in the 1969 film

adaption of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, her most famous work.

This was as much as I knew. Like Spark, I'm Scottish. I needed to do better.

Getting to Know Her

A quick Google search offered the following –

Born in Edinburgh as Muriel Camberg, she attended the James Gillespie’s High School for Girls, where a teacher, Christina Kay, provided the inspiration for Miss Jean Brodie.

A prolific novelist, her short modern classics include The Public Image, Momento More, The Girls of Slender Means, A Far Cry From Kensington and more. In addition to novel writing, she also wrote poems, plays and children’s books, alongside biographies of Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë. She died in April 2006, in Florence, aged 88.

The International Style of Muriel Spark

The next stop on my journey to discover more about Spark took me to The International Style of

Image from the International Style of Muriel Spark
Exhibition at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh

Muriel Spark exhibition at Scotland’s National Library in Edinburgh. Exhibits from the library’s extensive Spark archive were on display, including memorabilia from the places Spark called home – Edinburgh, Africa, London, New York, Rome and Tuscany – including correspondence with Jackie Onassis and Beryl Bainbridge.

What quickly became clear was that Spark was an author of contradictions, highly sociable, loving travel, fashion and parties, yet choosing to spend the last decades of her life writing in the tranquillity of the Tuscan countryside. She was a proud Scot, yet left Edinburgh for South Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with her new husband, Sydney Oswald Spark, at the age of nineteen, returning only occasionally to the country of her birth.

Dame Muriel Spark

What makes Spark so special?

Spark’s early career couldn’t have been further from the stereotypical image of a reclusive author, rarely leaving their writing den. For a flavour of what made her so special, the BBC put together a web page -

10 Things You Might Not Know About Muriel Spark which contains facts such as, she :

•         Bought a horse from the Queen
• ·      Gave designer dresses to nuns
• ·      Wrote her most famous novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, in just eight weeks

Edinburgh City Council recently revealed plans to name a pathway, which runs close to Spark’s high school, as Muriel Spark Walk.

Where else to learn about Spark?

The International Style of Muriel Spark exhibition may be over, but there is still lots going on, both in Scotland and further afield. One of the best ways to keep up with what’s happening is over on Twitter @MurielSpark100

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has planned a whole series of events celebrating Spark’s life and work, with a new event space on George Street being named the Spark Theatre.

In honour of Spark's centenary year, Creative Scotland created a new Muriel Spark 100 Fund. I was thrilled to learn that two fabulous writers from North East Scotland are amongst the recipients - Shane Strachan and Morna Young. Readings of Strachan's new short stories will take place at The Barn Salon, Banchory on Tuesday 28 August.

Further reading

To discover even more about Spark the writer, I recommend An Appointment in Arezzo: A friendship with Muriel Spark, which is a lively, humorous memoir, published as part of the centenary celebrations, by her travelling companion and confidant, journalist Alan Taylor.

Appoinment in Arezzo -
A Memoir by Alan Taylor

My favourite Spark quote from An Appointment in Arezzo is this –

To her, travel was literature’s lifeblood: ‘We have to find at first hand how other people live and die, what they smell, how they are made. I recommend travel to young authors. And also to authors not so young.’

A top tip for writers I intend to take to heart.

Share Your Favourite of Spark's work

I’d love to know if you have a Spark favourite?

And in this year of centenary celebrations, I hand the final word to Miss Jean Brodie, who brought Dame Muriel such world wide acclaim,

‘It’s important to recognise the years of one’s prime…’

Happy reading!

Rae

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