Welcome Elizabeth!

A warm welcome to Elizabeth Pearson who has now become our Membership Secretary. please contact Elizabeth with all initial enquiries about our work or becomimg a member: eapearson468@gmail.com.

Thank you Alastair!

Great thanks to Alastair Selkirk for all his work as Membership Secretary over the last three years.

Happy 90th Birthday Penguin Books!

To celebrate their 90th anniversary, Penguin Books have issued 90 classics in a fresh new livery, with the general title Penguin Archive. I am delighted to report one of these is Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat - her favourie of her novels. They are a bargain at £5.99 - treat yourself!

Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Uncharted Island - Book Launch 16 April 2025 7pm

Muriel Spark Society commmittee member Olga Wojtas will launch her latest book on Wednesday at the Edinburgh Bookshop - in the heart of Jean Brodie country at 176 Bruntsfield Place. The event is free and starts at 7pm. Contact the bookshop if you would like to attend - I'll see you there!

Electric Spark - the Enigma of Muriel Spark - Event at Topping Books Edinburgh 12 June 2025 7.30pm

See below for information on an event for an exciting new biographical study of Muriel Spark. Tickets from £8 are available on the Topping website. Frances Wilson writes books that blow your hair back' ~ KATHERINE RUNDELL A 2025 HIGHLIGHT FOR: Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian, Observer and Scotsman. From one of our leading biographers and critics comes an exhilarating, landmark new look at Muriel Spark. Frances Wilson is a critic, journalist and the author of six works of non-fiction, including Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas de Quincey, which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize in 2016, and Burning Man: The Ascent of D. H. Lawrence, which won the Plutarch Award in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize. Electric Spark explores not the celebrated Dame Muriel but the apprentice mage discovering her powers. We return to her early years when everything was piled on: divorce, madness, murder, espionage, poverty, skulduggery, blackmail, love affairs, revenge, and a major religious conversion. If this sounds like a novel by Muriel Spark it is because the experiences of the 1940s and 1950s became, alchemically reduced, the material of her art. 'Is the story fact? Is it fiction? It is what it is' Muriel Spark The word most commonly used to describe Muriel Spark is 'puzzling'. Spark was a puzzle, and so too are her books. She dealt in word games, tricks, and ciphers; her life was composed of weird accidents, strange coincidences and spooky events. Evelyn Waugh thought she was a saint, Bernard Levin said she was a witch, and she described herself as 'Muriel the Marvel with her X-ray eyes'. Following the clues, riddles, and instructions Spark planted for posterity in her biographies, fiction, autobiography and archives, Frances Wilson aims to crack her code.

Kathleen Hardie - congratulations!

Congratulations are due to our member Kathleen Hardie on the publication of her novella Ranna and the Crescendo Kilt which is now available on Kindle. Kathleen is also to be congratulated on her quaich from the Sir Walter Scott Club in recognition of many years of service. Thank you Kathleen for sharing that you enjoyed the joint lecture with the Club from Gerry Carruthers - we have enjoyed all the positive feedback.

Dame Maggie Smith 1934-2024

The Muriel Spark Society, including our Patron Penelope Jardine, are saddened to hear of the passing of Dame Maggie Smith. Dame Maggie won the Best Actress Oscar in 1969 for her unforgettable portrayal of Miss Jean Brodie. She was also a very impressive Mrs Pettigrew in the BBC adaptation of Memento Mori. It was a long career of great distinction and she certainly brought all her acting genius and humour to her Sparkian roles.

Electric Spark: the enigma of Muriel Spark

Frances Wilson, who enjoyed a recent critical success with her book on D H Lawrence, will publish a biographical volume on Dame Muriel on 5 June 2025. Entitled Electric Spark: the enigma of Muriel Spark, which is intriguing. As the first volume of Spark letters will appear next year too, it will be a big year for Sparkian scholarship. Frances Wilson's book will be published by Bloomsbury at £25, £17.50 for the ebook.