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.

Edinburgh: the autobiography ...

Alan Taylor, our former Chairman and friend of Muriel Spark, will launch his biography of Edinburgh at Topping Books on 7 October - details below. I wonder if a certain Dame will feature ... Venue: Pilrig St Paul's Church, Pilrig Street, Edinburgh - please note change of venue.

Muriel Spark receives an honorary degree from Edinburgh University in 1989

How to Win an Information War - with Muriel Spark

Author Peter Pomerantsev's new book, How to Win an Information War, investigates the life of Sefton Delmer, with whom Spark worked during the war as documented in Curriculum Vitae. Mr Pomerantsev will appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year on Thursday 15 August at 17.45. His book is published by Faber at £20. More details below: From one of our leading experts on disinformation, the incredible true story of the complex and largely forgotten WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer - and what we can learn from him today. In the summer of 1941, Hitler ruled Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. Britain was struggling to combat the powerful Nazi propaganda machine, which crowed victory and smeared its enemies. But inside Germany, there was one notable voice of dissent from the very heart of the military machine, Der Chef, a German whose radio broadcasts skilfully questioned Nazi doctrine. He had access to high-ranking German military secrets and spoke of internal rebellion. His listeners included German soldiers and citizens. American officials and even the President tried to to decipher what it meant for the future of the war. But what these audiences didn't know was that Der Chef was a fiction, a character created by the British propagandist Sefton Delmer, just one player in Delmer's vast counter-propaganda cabaret, a unique weapon in the war. As author Peter Pomerantsev uncovers Delmer's story, he is called into a wartime propaganda effort of his own: the global response to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. This book is the story of Delmer and his modern-day investigator, as they each embark on their own quest to seduce and inspire the passions of supporters and enemies, and to turn the tide of information wars.