The Edinburgh of Miss Jean Brodie

Gail Wylie will be speaking on Jean Brodie's Edinburgh in Broughton History Society's lecture series. The event takes place on Monday November 5, 7 for 7.30pm. The location is Drummond Community High School, and visitors pay £2 entrance.

Saltire Literary Awards 2018

Congratulations are due to our former Chairman Alan Taylor as his memoir of Muriel Spark, Appointment in Arezzo, is shortlisted for this year's Saltire Literary Awards. The winners will be announced at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on November 30. Good luck Alan!

Head to Peckham Rye ...

Muriel Spark and Peckham

2.30pm-4.30pm Sunday 4 November Start: Peckham Rye Station, London SE15 5DQ

http://www.museumofwalking.org.uk/events/muriel-spark-and-peckham/

Tickets are £15 in advance (early bird £3 cash back if booked by 28/10/18 ) £20 on the day

Book both events at the same time for £20 (available until 28/10/18)

Launching Between the Lines: part discovery of engaging writing, part discovery of place, and part discovery of the writers. Call it a 'Book Club on foot' if you like, in which we invite you to read a book and join us to walk "Between the Lines". It is 100 years since the birth of Dame Muriel Spark, acclaimed Scottish author, poet, literary critic and biographer - knighted for her contribution to British literature. The adaption for theatre and film of her novel “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” brought her considerable celebrity. This one novel caused several of her other works to be overshadowed, and yet critics have claimed that other novels are as powerful, even, of better quality.  One such is “The Ballad of Peckham Rye” written before The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, set in Peckham, south east London, it is a sharp observation of the social mores and working practices of the 1950s, as we follow ‘normal people’ going about their lives. 1950s Peckham leaps from the pages. Many of the locations in the novel still persist, others didn’t survive war or reconstruction, others are pure fantasy - our route will encompass many of these. 

 

Then in December, we are off to South Kensington - as Muriel Spark wrote a book called "A Far cry from Kensington" - it is less location specific than the Peckham novel but nevertheless paints a picture of 1950s London:

Muriel Spark and Kensington

10.30am-12.30pm

http://www.museumofwalking.org.uk/events/muriel-spark-and-kensington/

Tickets are £15 in advance (early bird £3 cash back if booked by 16/11/18 ) £20 on the day

Book both events at the same time for £20 (available until 28/10/18)

Looking forward to hearing from you

Lyon & Turnbull - Grazie Tanto!

It's a pleasure to thank Lyon & Turnbull for their generosity to The Muriel Spark Society this centenary year. They hosted Addressing Spark in June, supported the Spark Day at the Bookmark Festival, and have kindly invited members to the Elements private view this evening. Particular thanks to Deborah Bennett and Mary Michel.

Muriel Spark Centenary Concert

Society members were among a packed house for the Muriel Spark Centenary Concert in

London’s Southbank Centre on October 13. It featured the world premiere of “White Flame,”

a song cycle composed by David Matthews and commissioned by Penelope Jardine, which

set five of Muriel Spark’s poems to music. The poems were all written between 1948 and

1949, eight years before Spark’s first novel was published. The first two, The Victoria Falls,

and Like Africa, sprang from her experience of living in Africa during World War II. The

other three were free translations of the Roman poets Horace and Catullus. The song cycle

was beautifully performance by mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds, accompanied by The

Nash Ensemble, and was dedicated to Penelope Jardine who was present. In her programme

introduction, Ms Jardine wrote of the composer: “By strange coincidence, many years ago,

David came to Tuscany from Rome one foggy and freezing November night. He camped

there with a few friends in the ruined rectory I had just bought (no heat, no light, no water, no

windows, no doors). This house was to become Muriel Spark’s last home. I am so glad that

David survived his ordeal to become the extremely elegant composer he is today.”
Olga Wojtas

Spark in poetry: book launch this Saturday

The SPL hosts the launch of Spark, a new poetry anthology, edited by Rob A. Mackenzie and Louise Peterkin. Forty-four contemporary poets – including Sean O’Brien, Vahni Capildeo, Tim Turnbull, Tishani Doshi, Richard Price and Sasha Dugdale – contribute poems inspired by the novels of Muriel Spark, and a selection of them will read at the launch along with the editors.
The event is free and will be held at the Scottish Poetry Library on Saturday 13th October at 2.30pm.
Please book your place through the SPL website.

Congratulations Bookmark Festival!

The Muriel Spark Day at the Bookmark Festival in Blairgowrie was a triumph yesterday. The day began with an affectionate look back at Muriel from her friend Alan Taylor. Their friendship was full of incident and humour, uniquely portrayed . Rosemary Goring then spoke of the fiendishly difficult task of abridging Spark's novel A Far Cry from Kensington for radio. Spark was one of the most economical and concise of writers, with no word wasted, so a tall order. The actor who delivered the radio abridgement was superb, and all went well in the end.
Afterwards novelist Olga Wojtas (a Gillespie's Girl and Committee Member of The Muriel Spark Society) then read from her hilarious book, Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar. She had the hall in peals of laughter. The novel includes incidents involving a time-travelling Marcia Blaine in Morningside Library, hidden copies of Jean Brodie, and Morningside Waitrose ...
After a tasty lunch, inaugural Edinburgh Makar Stewart Conn and actor Gerda Stevenson gave a lecture/presentation on Spark's poetry, beautifully read by Stevenson: a thoughtful end to a very diverse and successful day. Congratulations to all involved in organising it.
There was a tantalising heads up from Gail Wylie too: Spark admirer (and Society annual lecturer in 2017) is heading to Blairgowrie next year - Ali Smith.

Muriel Spark Day at Bookmark Festival

Bookmark Festival in Blairgowrie celebrates 100 years of Muriel Spark tomorrow. Alan Taylor speaks of his memoir Appointment in Arezzo. Rosemary Goring will be in conversation about Spark afterwards. After lunch poet Stewart Conn and Gerda Stevenson will present an event on Spark’s poetry: Mistress of Unease. All willl be beautifully organised by our former Chairman, Gail Wylie.