Doctors of Philosophy at Edinburgh International Book Festival

The rehearsed reading of Muriel Spark’s play was a triumph last night, with particular praise for Maureen Beattie and Elaine C Smith. The full Spiegeltent resounded with laughter as the mordant satire progressed. I was delighted to see our Patron Penelope Jardine in attendance, as well as the First Minister! Let’s hope we are able to see a fully staged version at the Lyceum in the near future.

Welcome Olga Wojtas!

We are delighted to welcome novelist Olga Wojtas to the Committee of the Muriel Spark Society. Her recent novel, Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar, has a former pupil of Marcia Blaine as the main character. Olga is herself a former Gillespie’s girl. Very much looking forward to working with her.
Eric Dickson, Chairman

Spark at Glasgow Women’s Library

Narrative Experiments 25 August 2pm Free, but please book

An event looking at Muriel Spark and her contempories.

0141 550 2267

info@womenslibrary.org.uk

Dear Society Members and Muriel Spark readers,
This is just a very quick note to introduce myself as Chairman and to let you know that our new Committee will convene for the first time this Wednesday. We will be discussing our plans for the year ahead, as the Centenary celebrations continue. Watch this space for news of approaching events!
Eric

Farewell and welcome

After three years of being Chair, which followed an earlier eight years in the post, I decided it was time to go.  It’s been a real privilege to be part of this Society which not only takes its role of keeping the name of Spark well and truly remembered, but takes much enjoyment in doing so.  So many friendships have been formed, both personal and with other organisations including the National Theatre of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland.  Members have laid a lasting memorial in Makar’s Court, have helped to ensure the publication of all the novels, have visited Muriel’s home in Italy and met great authors, including Margaret Atwood at a special event.

Eric Dickson, an absolute stalwart Secretary, takes on the role of Chair.  There was no contest; Eric is an authority on Muriel Spark and his enthusiasm will drive the Society on. Hugh Statham takes on the role of Secretary, most ably assisted by Lorna who is the Membership Secretary.  Christine Selkirk, our terrific Treasurer, hands over to Clive Preston, whose knowledge of wine we hope leads us into new pastures - or should that be vineyards...

Whatever the future brings I know that the spirit of Muriel Spark will be behind all that happens. Alan Taylor describes the Society as ‘small but perfectly formed’ - may it continue to grow and bring much pleasure to the lives of all Muriel Spark admirers.

Gail Wylie

Exclusive event on June 19 for members and guests

‘Doctors of Philosophy’ at Edinburgh Book Festival

Look out for this special event on the 19 August.  A rehearsed reading of Muriel Spark’s only stage play will be performed in the Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Book Festival in Charlotte Square Gardens. It will be directed by Marilyn Imrie

More Centenary news

Edinburgh City Council are commemorating the centenary in two ways:


The Muriel Spark walk on Bruntsfield Links marks the daily route taken by Muriel as a schoolgirl from her home in Bruntsfield Place to her school, James Gillespie’s.
The unveiling of this will take place on Friday 8 June at 6 pm.

A plaque will be added to the Vennel, the stairs which link the Grassmarket to Lauriston Place, and which will now be known as ‘The Miss Jean Brodie Steps’.  Jean Brodie took her girls on this walk in the memorable scene in the novel ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ - recreated with Maggie Smith in the film.

Thanks to all involved in making both of these happen.

Virago Modern Classics reissue ‘Momento Mori’

 Eric Dickson, Secretary of the Muriel Spark Society, celebrates this reissue:

Remember you must die! (or live on as a modern classic)

Virago are celebrating the 40^th Anniversary of their modern classics with a reissue of 13 new editions, including Mememto Mori by Muriel Spark. The book has been a classic since 1959,  and Virago has respected its status. The publisher has commissioned new covers from designer Yehrin Tong, and the Spark cover has the obligatory telephone, but with striking, reflective silver inlay, and a very Hitchcockian background. The Librarian in me loves the french flaps, non-acidic paper stock and crystal clear Goudy typesetting. As the 60^th anniversary of the novel nears, this is a fitting birthday gift.

Centenary Concert for Muriel Spark, London

On the 13th of October in the Purcell Room in London's Southbank Centre, there will be a Centenary Concert for Muriel Spark.
This concert will include some favourite pieces of Dame Muriel's and new work which celebrates her poetry.  Penelope Jardine would be delighted to see members of the Society at this event!
For further details visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk

'Addressing Spark'

On the evening of Tuesday June 19th the Society will be hosting its major Centenary event:
'Addressing Spark'.   Lyon & Turnbull, Broughton Place, Edinburgh are kindly hosting this talk, reception and small exhibition all related to how Spark painted portraits in words to create her characters.  Gail Wylie will be giving a short talk, and will be joined in conversation with Alexander Moffat, OBE, RSA to discuss painting his iconic portrait of Dame Muriel.
(This evening is invitation only.  Invitations will be sent in May to all members, and guests, of the Society.)

Our Study Week in Italy 2018

Two Dames

I was struck recently by certain similarities between Muriel Spark and Daphne du Maurier.  They may have very different narrative styles but they also have a surprising amount in common.  I wrote the following short piece, sent it to the Daphne du Maurier Society, and am delighted with their response.

The piece, titled 'Two Dames' now appears on the Daphne du Maurier website.
Click HERE for details

Gail Wylie

Willy Maley 'Spark in Love'

Another excellent article from our member Professor Willy Maley:

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/blog/reading/2018/02/muriel-spark-on-love

The Guardian view on Muriel Spark

An excellent editorial from The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/01/the-guardian-view-on-muriel-spark-gauzy-wit-and-philosophical-depth?CMP=share_btn_link

Pitlochry Winter Words

Alan Taylor, Rosemary Goring, Zoe Strachan and Louise Welch will all be discussing Muriel Spark in two different events at Pitlochry Theatre next week and next weekend.

Memento Mori is The Guardian's Reading Group choice

Join in the discussion! 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/06/reading-group-memento-mori-by-muriel-spark-is-februarys-choice?CMP=share_btn_link

Modern Scottish Literary Manuscripts conference

This will be an excellent day in the company of a variety of  Spark experts and enthusiasts.  (In the lunch break take a short walk to the Writers' Museum to see their Spark exhibition too and the memorial stone laid outside.)

  

The Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC; https://amarcsite.wordpress.com/) is organising a one-day meeting on Modern Scottish Literary Manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland on Thursday 19th April 2018.  In addition to various other talks, Dr Colin McIlroy of the NLS will be speaking on the subject of the Muriel Spark archive and will lead a guided tour of the Muriel Spark exhibition.  The registration fee includes morning and afternoon tea and coffee, as well as lunch.  The event is open to non-members (though anyone can join AMARC and we would be delighted to welcome new members).

Our next event 'Addressing Spark'

The Muriel Spark Society's main event of the year is our reception, talk and small exhibition on June 19th, generously hosted by Lyon and Turnbull, Broughton Place, Edinburgh.

The talk and exhibition will consider how important dress and appearance are to Spark's characters.

Invitations to this evening event will be sent only to members of the Society and guests of Lyon and Turnbull.

Centenary Week

A packed week of centenary celebrations should have left nobody in any doubt that Muriel Spark was important.  The Usher Hall event, the BBC 2 Scotland documentary and the Symposium at Glasgow University brought the life and work of Dame Muriel to a wide range of readers.  The diverse range of papers at the Symposium brought so much to light, particularly the talks by Mark Curran, Robert Hosmer, Catriona Macdonald and Helen Stoddard.  Ali Smith enchanted her audience with her discussion with Zoe Strachan.  (Ali's 'Desert Island' book is 'Loitering with Intent')

The Society will bring this week to an end with our annual Birthday Lunch on Sunday 4 February to which we'll be welcoming existing and new members and our guests.  Happy 100th!

Spark Memorial - Letter in The Times

'The Guardian''s February reading group

Send your suggestions to The Guardian for their February Reading Group.
How about one of the less well-known such as 'Robinson' or 'The Takeover' or 'Aiding and Abetting'?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jan/30/muriel-spark-novel-reading-group-prime-of-miss-jean-brodie?CMP=share_btn_link

'Mistress of Unease': The Poetry of Muriel Spark

Dame Muriel Spark always considered herself a poet, not a novelist.   Stewart Conn, former Edinburgh Makar, will remind us why poetry was essential to her writing.

On February 7th, 12.45 - 1.30 pm, in the Hawthornden Theatre at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Stewart will be discussing the poetry of Muriel Spark in an entertaining and stimulating talk.  He is joined by Gerda Stevenson, actor, writer, director and singer, who will be reading Spark's poetry.

Muriel Spark 100: All Miss Brodie's Girls?

Essential listening! On BBC Radio 3's 'The Essay', and online, leading Scottish writers including Ali Smith and Janice Galloway reflect on different aspects of Muriel Spark in a series of talks.

Monday 5 February - Friday 9 February  Radio 3 at 22.45

‘Vital, witty, formidably blithe’: Ali Smith on Muriel Spark at 100

This essay by Ali Smith is a timely reminder of the outstanding lecture she gave for the Society in November 2017.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/29/ali-smith-on-muriel-spark-at-100?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Spark & Burns by Willy Maley

http://scottishbooktrust.com/blog/reading/2018/01/muriel-spark-burns-bright-on-burns-night

The Many Primes of Muriel Spark BBC 2 Scotland

On 31st January at 9 pm on BBC 2: 

Kirsty Wark celebrates the life and work of Dame Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and one of the 20th century's most enigmatic cultural figures, on the one-hundredth anniversary of her birth.

Born in Edinburgh, Muriel's extraordinary life took her to colonial Africa, wartime London, literary New York and vibrant 1960s Rome. Her most famous novel - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - immortalised the city of her childhood but with an added darkness and acerbic wit that became her trademark style.

Kirsty retraces Muriel's footsteps from the cobbled streets of Edinburgh to the sublime beauty of Victoria Falls. Contributions from writers AL Kennedy, Janice Galloway, Ali Smith, William Boyd and Val McDermid tell of Muriel Spark's unique literary style and a life full of reinvention.

Kirsty meets with the journalist Alan Taylor, who has recently published his memoir of Muriel, and she travels to Italy for the first television interview with Penelope Jardine, Muriel's close friend of 40 years.

National Library of Scotland, Scottish Charity, No: SCO11086
This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the addressee please inform the sender and delete the email from your system. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of National Library of Scotland. This message is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 and Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. No liability is accepted for any harm that may be caused to your systems or data by this message.
 Before you print please think about the ENVIRONMENT

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, A celebration of Muriel Spark

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09lxpyg

Birthday Lunch Change of Venue

Owing to the unexpected closure of the Royal Overseas League, our annual Birthday Lunch is now being held at the Bruntsfield Hotel.

The date remains the same - February 4th - 12.30 for 1 pm.  The cost is slightly more at £27 instead of £25.

Because this year's Birthday Lunch celebrates Dame Muriel's Centenary, the quiz will be based on her life, in particular her autobiography Curriculum Vitae. 

Gail at the NLS December 2017

Photograph thanks to Callum Bennetts

Maverick Photo Agency Ltd

Celebrating the Centenary

There are so many events, talks and programmes coming up in 2018!  If you haven't yet visited the exhibition at the National Library please go!  One visit is actually not enough.  Congratulations to our member Dr Colin McIlroy and his team for a splendid exhibition.

Here are some of the other events coming your way in early 2018.

Radio 4 'The Vital Spark'.  Look out for programmes bearing this overall title.  The first of these is  on January 1st,  at 9.45 am, a 5 part serialisation of Alan Taylor's Appointment in Arezzo.
On January 5th at 2.15 the afternoon drama Intelligence is based on Spark's time employed in MI6.

Radio 3 'All Miss Brodie's Girls?' 29 January - 2 February 22.45-23.00  Each night a leading Scottish writer (Ali Smith, Val McDermid, Janice Galloway, Kate Clanchy, Louise Welsh) reflects on a different aspect of Muriel Spark.

Other events include (see other posts for the  Usher Hall event, the Symposium at Glasgow University and our Birthday Lunch):

2 Feb - 10 June 'A Centenary Celebration at the Writers' Museum, Edinburgh'  I hope they point out our commemorative flagstone in the courtyard there.

7 Feb 'Mistress of Unease'  Stewart Conn discusses the poetry of Muriel Spark with Gerda Stevenson reading the poems at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Alan Taylor is talking about Spark in various venues: 25 January in AK Bell Library, Perth; 1 February at Central Library, Edinburgh; 4 February 20 High Street, Linlithgow

More events are of course planned but not made official yet.  The blog will keep you up to date.

The International Style of Muriel Spark

This unmissable exhibition at the National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, is now open until May 2018.  Curated by Colin McIlroy and his team, Muriel Spark's life from Edinburgh to Tuscany is beautifully depicted through her journals, her dresses, photographs and letters.  Congratulations to Colin (one of our members) for doing justice to Dame Muriel.

The Muriel Spark Centenary Symposium 2018

This event, which takes place at the University of Glasgow, promises to be one of the highlights of the Centenary.

The Symposium is organised by Helen Stoddart and Professor Gerard Carruthers of the University of Glasgow and members of staff of the National Library of Scotland, led by Colin McIlroy.

It runs for two days, February 1st (the date of Muriel Spark's birth) and February 2nd.  On January 31st there will be a reception and a screening of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

It is now open for registration for all those interested.

For further details:  Click here

Society ticket offer for Usher Hall event - 31 January 2018 - all tickets have now gone

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is holding a Spark event at the Usher Hall on 31 January 2018 - Creme de la Creme.  For details - Click here .

Believing that the Society should enjoy exclusive benefits to this event, one of our members has bought ten tickets.

These are all on offer to Society members only and are complimentary.

If any member would like one of these tickets, please contact Gail by email or telephone.

(Gail did ask the EIBF if they would consider including the Society in their discounted ticket deal but their offer was exclusive to their own Patrons and Friends.)

Spark event at the Usher Hall

Usher Hall event Creme de la Creme - Click here

The Muriel Spark Society, through its members, has been a key contributer to the support given to Birlinn/Polygon for the lovely new issues of the novels.  The Society thanks the publishers for accrediting this support in each edition.

The Bottle Imp

Professor Willy Maley of Glasgow University, proud owner of a Muriel Spark Society t-shirt, has sent this link to be shared with members;
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2017/11/that-promethian-spark/
Click here

The University of Glasgow is holding a two day 'Muriel Spark Centenary Symposium ' on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 February 2018.  (A screening of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is scheduled for the 31st January)
Look out for more details which will be published on this blog when information is finalised.
Our Annual Lecturer Ali Smith will be there.

Spark and Time - with Ali Smith

The Muriel Spark Society Annual Lecture 2017

Ali Smith and Gail Wylie at the 2017 Lecture 

on November 14th

at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Appointment in Arezzo by Alan Taylor review – the truth about Muriel Spark

The Guardian review - click here .

Annual Lecture 2017 and 2018

Ali Smith delighted her audience on Tuesday 14 November with an outstanding lecture which must make us all want to read or re read everything Spark wrote.  Thanks so much Ali - we hope to welcome you again.

Professor Allan Riach of the University of Glasgow will give the 2018 Lecture on her work as a poet.

Members' Visit to Umbria 2018

The visit to Umbria will take place 19-25 March 2018, through 'Learn Italy'.

We will be staying in Citta di Castello and visiting the paintings of Muriel Spark's favourite artist, Piero della Francesca in nearby towns, including Urbino. 

If anyone is interested in joining this trip, please contact Gail. 

Annual Lecture 2017

Tuesday 14th November will be the Society's 16th Annual Lecture and will be given this year by Ali Smith.

All tickets have been taken for this event but interest is still high - so please, if you have a ticket but can no longer attend, would you let the NLS know?

Alan Taylor's 'Appointment in Arezzo'

Alan Taylor's lively and engaging memoir of his friendship with Muriel Spark is to be launched on Thursday 9th November, 6.30 pm at the Saltire Society, Fountain Court, Edinburgh to which all members of the Society are invited.

Alan, a former Chair of the Society,  has generously included the following acknowledgement:

'Thanks, too, are due to the members of the small but perfectly formed Muriel Spark Society, which exists to keep the Spark flame alive.  I recommend joining it to anyone who has an interest in Muriel and her oeuvre.  May it go on its way rejoicing.'

Makars’ Court 2008

The first permanent memorial to Dame Muriel is in Makars’ Court in Edinburgh

- thanks to the members of the Muriel Spark Society.

The stone was laid in 2008 for Dame Muriel's 90th.

See The Scotsman for further details.

Some photos and a video from the event below:

Makars' Court

Eric Dickson, Gail Wylie, Alan Taylor and Lorna Statham from the Muriel Spark Society 

and Deirdre Brock from The City of Edinburgh Council

For the Society blog of 31 May 2008 click here .

Video courtesy of Sean Groat at www.luxvideo.co.uk

Gail Wylie on the centenary

The Society is delighted to be a supporter of the centenary celebrations including the new publication of all Dame Muriel's novels by Polygon. 
See the Muriel Spark Centenary Editions at www.birlinn.co.uk

For Gail Wylie’s centenary interview for Creative Scotland

Click here

Polygon publishes all the novels

Polygon are publishing all 22 novels over the next year. Edited by Alan Taylor, they each have an introduction by leading writers (including past Annual Lecturers such as Candia McWilliam and Ronald Frame). Each cover is a different colour; the back carries a photograph of Muriel at the age of writing that particular novel; on the cover a quotation from the text and a typewriter keyboard show the order in which the novels were originally published.  This stunning collection is a fitting testament to Spark in her Centenary year.
The Muriel Spark Society was able to help support this initiative through the generosity of its members and we will be acknowledged in each edition.
Visit Polygon's website (www.birlinn.co.uk) or CLICK HERE to find out more.

Annual Lecture 2017: Ali Smith

The Society is delighted to welcome  Ali Smith as our lecturer on November 14 at 6 pm at the National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh.  The subject of her lecture will be Spark and Time.

This event is free but booking a ticket is essential.  Visit www.nls.uk/events or telephone 0131 623 3734.

(Members contact Eric as there are some places reserved for members of the Society)

This lecture marks the first public event celebrating Muriel Spark's Centenary in 2018.  Further details of all events, exhibitions, publications and much more will be posted here and on the Muriel Spark 100 website.

Successful Lyon and Turnbull sale

The sale of books and a table from the estate of Robin Spark attracted great interest.  In particular, a first edition of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', inscribed by Dame Muriel to her son "To Robin, Love and wonkies, Mummy xxx" fetched £21,250 - 42 times its estimate.

Edinburgh International Children's Festival

If any members are interested in helping out at the following Festival, please follow the link.  I'm posting this message on behalf of its organisers who are led by Pamela Walker, previously with the National Theatre of Scotland. 

Volunteering at the Festival

We are looking for enthusiastic and committed volunteers to join the 2017 Festival team during the week of 27 May – 4 June.

Volunteers play an integral part in making the Festival happen each year and we welcome volunteers from all walks of life. Our Volunteers are the public face of the Festival; helping our school, family and delegate audiences at each venue, staffing industry and guest events, and supporting the Festival team behind the scenes throughout the week.

In return for your time and commitment you'll be able to see Festival performances, attend social events, and take part in a hugely exciting, creative and rewarding week.

If you are interested, please apply by forwarding a covering letter and your CV to volunteers@imaginate.org.uk.

0131 225 8050 • www.imaginate.org.uk
30B Grindlay Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9AX­­

Edinburgh International Children's Festival 27 May – 4 June 2017

Imaginate is a company limited by guarantee registered at the above address.
Company No. SC115855 • Charity No. SC016437 • VAT No. 553 3970 29

Promoting and developing theatre and dance for children and young people in Scotland

Annual November Lecture

On the 14th of November at 6 pm the annual lecture at the National Library of Scotland will be given this year by the innovative and acclaimed novelist Ali Smith.
20 seats are reserved for members of the Society.  This lecture is limited to 100 people and is free, but a reserved ticket is essential.
Further details of booking a seat will be made available nearer the time.

AGM June 14th 2017

This year the AGM will be held on June 14th at 7 pm at the Saltire Society, High Street, Edinburgh.
After business, we will be given a short talk by Professor Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.
We will then proceed to a nearby restaurant for dinner. If you are interested in coming to the dinner please let our Treasurer know by May 31st.

Visit to the Court of the Lord Lyon

Miss Jean Brodie famously told her set, 'If I were to receive a proposal of marriage from the Lord Lyon King of Arms I would decline it.'  The Society is visiting this famous Court on Thursday 23rd of March at 2 pm.  They can accommodate 15 of us, so please put your name down soon.  Email gewylie@btinternet.com for a place. We will meet at the gate of New Register House just before 2 pm. (If you stand at the front door of the Balmoral Hotel and look straight ahead, it's the building ahead of you at the top of the lane.)

Honours List 2017

Congratulations to Sandy Wylie (Lord Kinclaven) on receiving an OBE in today's Honours List.  This is for 'the introduction of the Scottish Legal System in schools.'  To read more about Sandy's initiative (also known as MiniTrials) go thepaisleysnail.blogspot.com

'The Real Muriel Spark'

The Scottish Review of Books has an excellent new website:
scottishreviewofbooks.org
The most recent issue (Vol 11, Number 4, 2016) has an article well worth reading by Alan Taylor, 'The Real Muriel Spark', on the relationship between Muriel and her son Robin, who sadly died earlier this month.

Stewart Conn talks about Muriel Spark's poetry

Stewart Conn will deliver the Poetry Association of Scotland's John Masefield Lecture, 'Mistress of Unease: The Poetry of Muriel Spark' in a joint event with the Muriel Spark Society. 

Wednesday 14 September 2016 at the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton's Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT

Tickets at the door (no booking required) £5 or £4 concessions.

Wine reception from 6.30 - 7 pm.  The talk will begin at 7 pm and last about one hour.

Stewart Conn, well known for his lyrical poetry in collections such as 'The Touch of Time', was Edinburgh's inaugural Makar from 2002 to 2005.

Curator's talk: Sparkiving: Loitering with Intent to Catalogue

This excellent talk is available to listen to on the National Library of Scotland's recorded webcast.
Visit http://www.nls.uk/player
Saved webcast: Thursday 23 June, at 18.00

Members' Book Group 7 September and Annual lecture 16 November 2016

Dear Members

You are cordially invited to our Book Group meeting on 7 September at the Saltire Society, at 7pm.

The book for discussion is "The Takeover", and I wish you happy reading or re-reading.

Please also note our annual lecture is on 16 November at 6pm at the National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge.

Dr Jim Lawson (University of Edinburgh) will give a talk on Spark and Renaissance art, particularly Piero della Francesca.

Places should become bookable in September (around the time of the book group). We have arranged some dedicated places for Society members. I will send out a reminder nearer the time.

          If you would like to join the Society to come to either of these events please follow the email     link on the blog home page.

New Books

Two new books of interest. .

Continuing his alphabetical titles, and following his last book 'Life-like' Toby Litt's new book 'Mutants' is a collection of twenty-six essays, one of which, 'Spark' is based on the excellent lecture he gave for the Society in 2006.
Litt is a writer Muriel Spark particularly liked and in 'Spark' he returns the compliment: 'I will begin with straightforward affection: I love Muriel Spark's books'.  (Seagull Books, London, 2016) £19.50

Carcanet have reissued Spark's biography (first published in 1953) of John Masefield, another of her favourite writers.
'I feel a large amount of my writing on him can be applied generally.  It is in many ways a statement of my position as a literary critic and I hope some readers will recognise it as such.'
(Carcanet, 2016) £14.50

Jean Brodie Walk

On Sunday 15th May, members and friends will be following the walk Jean Brodie took her class. We'll be starting from Makars' Court outside the Writers' Museum at 2 pm and finishing with afternoon tea in Bruntsfield.

Advocates' Library, Edinburgh

Members of the Society are visiting this prestigious library, and Parliament House, in Edinburgh tomorrow.
With thanks to Andrea Longson, we very much look forward to our exclusive visit.

The Driver's Seat

For anyone in London there is a superb window display in Waterstone's Piccadilly featuring Lise.
And on Saturday 23 April Januce Galloway is giving a masterclass there on Spark. Spaces are limited so contact the branch beforehand.
Thanks Waterstones for all the thought you've put into this.

Tweet by WaterstonesPicc on Twitter

	WaterstonesPicc (@WaterstonesPicc)
22/04/2016, 09:24 @gewylie1 Sure! Our windows are big. We have Lise in the window, I made her a special outfit #TheDriversSeat pic.twitter.com/SBzso5gcE1

Muriel Spark the Poet

(The following is a brief piece I was asked to send to the BBC in January when the programme 'The Poetic Spark' was being devised.)

Muriel Spark stated: 'I write as a poet...my novels come under the category of poetics rather than fiction...' 
'Although most of my life has been devoted to fiction, I have always thought of myself as a poet.  I do not write 'poetic' prose, but feel that my outlook on life and my perception of events are those of a poet.  Whether in prose or verse, all creative writing is mysteriously connected with music and I always hope this factor is apparent throughout my work.'
(Spark, Tuscany, 2003: Preface to All the Poems, Carcanet, 2004)

Certainly, her novels carry the signatures of poetry: they are concise, allusive, elusive and open to a variety of readings and interpretations.

When I was asked to give a talk at the Tramway, Glasgow, for the National Theatre of Scotland's production of The Driver's Seat in 2015,  I emphasised the influence on her development as a writer of reading Scottish ballads at her school, James Gillespie's in Edinburgh.

Border Ballads were the real spark for Spark.  Aged ten, she called them her favourite reading material: 'In Edinburgh [they] are best read in the long dark winters...They were cruel and lyrical at the same time and I think they had a great effect on my later literary work.' ('When I was Ten', The Golden Fleece, ed Jardine, Carcanet, 2014)  She entitled one of her novels The Ballad of Peckham Rye, probably as homage to their influence.  The ballads are the very stuff of a Spark novel with their sense of the macabre, their time shifts, their violence, their short, sharp and enigmatic dark narratives written with a deceptively light touch.  The ballads are dispassionate and leave the reader to work out their hidden messages: why was the twa corbies' knight so casually abandoned?  Why was Lord Randall poisoned?

To conclude: in my opinion, the poetry of Spark is more self-revealing than her novels.  She described herself as 'a constitutional exile' and it is in poems such as 'Abroad', 'Communication', 'Standing in the Field', 'Hats' and 'Edinburgh Villanelle' among others that you find this sense of dislocation and exile but, importantly, not unhappiness.

The inscription on her gravestone, translated there into Italian, comes, appropriately, from her poem 'Canaan':

'Not a leaf

Repeats itself, we only repeat the word.'

Gail Wylie

April 2016

The Poetic Spark

To mark 10 years since Muriel Spark's death A L Kennedy presents a programme on Muriel Spark's poetry on Sunday 10 April at 4.30 pm on BBC Radio 4.  Contributors include Alan Taylor and Penelope Jardine.
More information can be found on the websites of BBC Radio 4 and Carcanet

Rome 2016

The Society's trip to Rome (15 - 20 March 2016) was a huge success.
Martin Gray of Learn Italy and our incomparable guide Agnes Crawford of @understandrome gave the 17 Society members an unforgettable visit.
Agnes had gone out of her way to research Muriel Spark's residences in Rome's Centro Storico from the Hotel Raphael to the Palazzo Taverna.  We all had an excellent day walking in this fascinating part of Rome.
Agnes had also found the exact site of the setting of 'The Takeover' in Nemi - a small town in the hills outside Rome, and the farmer on whose land much of the novel is set (including Diana's Temple) gave us glasses of his own wine and bread with his own olive oil. We were delighted to be joined for lunch in Nemi by Penelope Jardine, Airdrie Armstrong and their friend Alison.
We also visited Ancient Rome, Keats' grave, the Catacombs, and much more. One evening we were joined for dinner by Ivan Castiglione, an actor in last year's National Theatree of Scotland's production of 'The Driver's Seat'. 
On our free day some of us went to the newly excavated (and work in progress) Domus Aurea, Nero's Golden House; some visited the Forum and the Palatine Hill; others went to the Vatican City or the Piazza Campidoglio.  Rome is a city which offers something for everyone.  We learnt so much - and we also had a great deal of fun.
On our final morning we went to the superb gallery at the Villa Borghese.
We stayed at the friendly Lancelot Hotel, by the Colosseum, whose attentive staff added to our great experience.  Our thanks to all at the hotel, to Martin, to Agnes and to our accomplished coach driver Giuseppe.
It was a visit which offered first time vistors special insights into Rome, reminded those of us who had been before what a wonderful city it is, and let us all understand exactly why Muriel Spark chose to live there.

Day 1 at the Caracalla Baths

                                           

Day 1 at a part of the aquaduct at the Via Appia

                                  

One of many lively and delicious meals

One of Muriel Spark's flats in the Centro Storico

Another location near one of  Muriel Spark's flats

Ivan Castiglione joining us for dinner

The Hotel Raphael, Spark's first port of call in Rome

Agnes telling us about the Palazzo Taverna

Palazzo Taverna - Spark lived in one of these apartments

'The Takeover' setting: The Temple of Diana

'The Takeover' setting: The Devil's Grottoes

At 'The Takeover' setting: enjoying Signor de Santis' wine

The Lake at Nemi

Arrivederci Roma!

David Bowie's top 100 books

'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' is included in Bowie's favourite 100 books. 
To see the full list, go to http://gu.com/p/3j7a2/sbl

Review of The Golden Mean by John Glenday (Picador, 2015)

The final poem of Glenday’s previous collection, Grain, states:

                Not one of us will live forever
               The world is far too beautiful for that.

His new collection, The Golden Mean, picks up this thread of cherishing transcience and weaves it into an intriguing narrative of what it means to be alive.  By using the four elements, he takes us on journeys through fire and air, on roads and tracks, on and into the sea and rivers in a search for life’s ‘golden mean’, that perfect balance of proportions. 

However, like the donkey in ‘The Flight into Egypt’ who is ‘on a pointless journey he knows has barely begun’, the poet alerts his readers to the impossibility of finding that balance. So destinations become far less important than the very journeys themselves.  Glenday takes us  ‘somewhere’ where ‘everywhere’s possible’: whether that’s the flight of Noah’s ravens or an imaginary city: ‘Let’s head for a place, neighbouring and impossible’  (Abaton). 

The frequent motif of birds, including his favourite skylark, move from the ground to the air; space, lightness, translucence are the essence of Glenday’s poetry.   The mind’s eye of the reader looks upwards to stars (‘Constellation’) – in other poems to light, to sails, fire, seedheads and skies.  And even within each poem, many of which are short, lie those important spaces which reveal what is missing. 

The spaces in the lines (a post-script note informs this form is a Viking ballad-metre) of ‘The Lost Boy’ serve to highlight the son who is no longer there:

                If fine rhymes        rang like iron
                hammered bright,       hot with meaning
                they might weigh        more in my heart.
                Brave songs don’t       bring the dead home.

As contrast, the earthbound poems reveal harsher realities.  To be bound to the earth, or caged, or imprisoned is the worst thing that can happen to us. The dark fable ‘Ill Will’ is mired in soil both literal and metaphorical; the ‘Humpback Embryo’ never stood a chance:  to bury the séance books in ‘Our Dad’ ‘felt worse/ than burning somehow – imagine words gasping for air.’  The doomed soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme (The Big Push) also imagine gasping for air:

                …Just for a while to have no weight, to go drifting
                clear of thought and world, was utter bliss. 

Glenday wrong-foots us with all his allusions to escape and journeying.  He is not an advocate of looking elsewhere for balance simply because there is too much to appreciate in the world around us. The title of this collection ‘The Golden Mean’ does not simply allude to that perfect balance of proportions.  Glenday celebrates the ‘mean’ – the humble, the ordinary, the common things in life and want us to recognise these as golden.  Keeping clear of ‘rich soil’ because ‘a grain of truth’ will  ‘grow poorly’ there, and behind the apparent flippancy of  ‘This world is nothing much’, his insistence on observing and honouring the ordinary makes it exceptional. British pearls, dismissed by Tacitus as being ‘exceptionally poor’ are worn by ‘their women…as if winter were a jewel.’  There are no poems about large showy flowers,  but primroses or ‘Fireweed’; instead of  grand architecture there’s a dockyard;  no polished marble but a simple ‘White Stone’ or ‘Rubble’; no grand paintings but ‘Self Portrait in a Dirty Window’: no heroic warriors, but the names of the world’s unknown or overlooked soldiers whose names make their own poetry (Lest We Forget):  ‘so many brief, important things’  (My Mother’s Favourite Flower).

‘The Walkers’ of the final poem, those ghosts who cross water, follow dirt roads, return ‘grieving for all the things we could never hold again’  to ask ‘if you might heal the world’.  ‘The Golden Mean’ reminds us of the fragility of life; his recurring motif of hands alerts his readers to hold on to, and cherish, the ordinary, humble, mean things which provide the transcient, overlooked beauty of the world we live in.

Gail Wylie                                                                                  October 2015

New poetry collection from John Glenday

John Glenday's eagerly awaited fourth collection of poetry, The Golden Mean (published by Picador), will be published on Thursday 10th September.   This comes six years after the highly acclaimed Grain which was a Poetry Book Society recommendation and shortlisted for the 2010 Ted Hughes Award and Griffin International Poetry Prize. 

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie goes digital

Canongate has just announced that it is to be the digital publisher of nine of Spark's novels, beginning with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.  The Bachelors will follow in December 2015, and The Finishing School in Spring 2016.  Other novels to be published as e books will be: The Abbess of Crewe, Not to Disturb, The Only Problem, Robinson, The Takeover and Aiding and Abetting.

The Driver's Seat - an introduction

Click here

Thanks to the National Theatre of Scotland for sending us this link to a video trailer of the director and cast discussing The Driver's Seat.

Muriel Spark wrote:

'I have always claimed that I write as a poet, that my novels come under the category of poetics rather than fiction.'  (from the essay 'The Art of Verse', 1999)

National Theatre of Scotland

Exciting news - the National Theatre of Scotland are to bring 'The Driver's Seat' to the Lyceum in Edinburgh and the Tramway in Glasgow this summer.  Directed by Laurie Sansom, the daring and innovative style of the NTS will suit perfectly this darkest of Spark's novels.  The Muriel Spark Society welcome this initiative and look forward immensely to seeing this on stage.

http://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com

Twitter

Muriel Spark Society - now on Twitter.
Click here

Guardian interview with Penelope Jardine

by Susanna Rustin in last Saturday's (5 July) Guardian here

"The last of two great women writers - Muriel Spark and Sybille Bedford"

An Evening Standard review by David Sexton of the recently published collection of Muriel Spark's essays The Golden Fleece ..."It's an absolute treasure trove".   He also reviews Sybille Bedford's Pleasures and Landscapes.   Both authors died in 2006 and the reviewer cites Evelyn Waugh's admiration for them..

The Ballad of Peckham Rye...

...at this year's East Dulwich Literary Festival.   Professor Martin Stannard will be giving a lecture on this early novel by Muriel Spark on Monday 30th June at 7.30 pm.   Professor Stannard will also have an early BBC Radio recording of the book.   Tickets are £2.50 and are available from Rye Books in East Dulwich (Tel: 020 3581 1850) or can be reserved by contacting David Workman at D.Workman@harrisdulwichgirls.org.uk

Follow this link for further details about the lecture and to find out more about the Festival itselfwhich will host a variety of events including a reading and discussion by Gillian Clarke, the National Poet of Wales on 1st July.

A book review in the London Evening Standard...

 ...that mentions Muriel Spark's 'sweet singing voice'.   The review is of Lynn Barber's autobiography A Curious Career.   Fascinating reading anyway, covering a wide range of her celebrity interviews, but it might be worth trying to find the original interview with Muriel Spark online somewhere?

"You have to live with the mystery"...

says Muriel Spark, quoted in this post by Parul Seghal on yesterday's New Yorker website.

Penelope Jardine on Woman's Hour

Here is a link to a podcast of yesterday's (27th March) BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour (available for download for a further 29 days) where Penelope Jardine discusses The Golden Fleece essays.

Ian Rankin portrait...

...gifted to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery;  the link to the BBC news story is here in which Rankin  remembers that when he was a student at Edinburgh University, doing his thesis on Muriel Spark, her portrait came to the gallery.

New Publications

At the end of this month (28 March) Carcanet Press will be publishing The Golden Fleece: Essays by Muriel Spark, edited by Penelope Jardine.     Please use the above web link to take you to the page which has all the details.

And at the end of April , the University of Notre Dame Press are publishing Hidden Possibilities:  Essays in Honor of Muriel Spark by Robert Ellis Hosmer.   The contributors include Regina Barreca, Gerard Carruthers, Barbara Epler, John Glavin, Dan Gunn, Robert E. Hosmer Jr., Joseph Hynes, Gabriel Josipovici, Frank Kermode, John Lanchester, David Malcolm, John Mortimer, Alan Taylor, and John Updike and Muriel Spark's friend Doris Lessing.

Doris Lessing's obituary in The Guardian published in November last year is here and there will be a  memorial service for her on 7 April at St-Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

The Alphabet Library: B is for The Bachelors

In The Telegraph - an intriguing idea and a very good, incisive article about Muriel Spark's 1960 novel The Bachelors.

And speaking of tests...

...for those not present at the Society's lunch this year here is the 30th Anniversary Quiz on The Only Problem.   Answers to follow!

1. What does Effie steal at the supermarket on the autostrada?
2. What is the name of Effie's lover?
3. Which part of London do Edward and Ruth stay in?
4. What is Effie's baby called?
5. What is the name of Harvey's British lawyer?
6. What is the name of the French family who own the chateau?
7. Which painter painted Job visited by his wife?
8. What do the letters FLE stand for?
9. How did Harvey's family make their money?
10. What are the names of Harvey's aunt and uncle in Toronto?
11. To which figure from classical mythology does Harvey compare Job?
12. In which arondissement in Paris is the policeman killed?
13. What is the name of Harvey's interrogator after the killing?
14. What is the name of the French policeman with English like that heard on Radio Moscow?
15. What is Effie's battle name?
16. What was Effie writing a thesis on?
17. What gift does Harvey's aunt bring him?
18. Which animal has vertical eyelids?
19. One of Job's daughters has the name Keren Happuch.   What does her name mean?
20. How many years does Harvey joke he will live at the end of the novel?

Test your foreign language skills!

Some foreign editions of three of Muriel Spark's novels are available from Eric Dickson - please email him at e.dickson@nls.uk if interested:-

The Girls of Slender Means in Spanish, Portuguese and Russian
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in Portuguese and Russian
A Far Cry from Kensington in Romanian

and last but not least the complete short stories in Russian.