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.

Bookmark Festival 2024

Our distinguished former Chair, Gail Wylie, will launch the 2024 Bookmark Festival on 3 August with Olga Wojtas: Date: Saturday 3 August 2024 Time: 2:00 pm Location: St Catharine's Community Centre, PH10 6EY Price: £10 for non-members £9 for members Author: Olga Wojtas With: Ewan Morrison BOOKMARK 2024 Launch with the welcome return of one of our patrons, Olga Wojtas and the latest instalment of her heroine Shona McMonagle's adventures, in Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Gondola of Doom. Anyone who has been to one of Olga's previous events knows that an entertaining afternoon is guaranteed! After refreshments and raffle, Gail Wylie, BOOKMARK Chair, will reveal the BOOKMARK 2024 Programme and the 'Box Office' will be open for the sale of Festival tickets including our very popular 'Weekend and Daily Passes'. For tickets please contact: Rhona Christie at rhona.maclean@yahoo.co.uk or 01250 875613 Adventure into Books - 01250 872852

Olga Wojtas and Miss Blaine's Prefect

Our eminent Committee member Olga Wojtas will appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year, details below: Olga Wojtas: Miss Blaine's Prefect is Back Wed 14 Aug 12:45 - 13:45 EFI Venue NW Attend in person EFI Venue NW £15.50 [concessions £13.50/£10.50] In-person tickets go on sale at 10:00 on Thursday 20 June. Olga Wojtas: Miss Blaine's Prefect is Back Olga Wojtas talks about how you should never underestimate a librarian. The author has delighted readers with her Miss Blaine’s Prefect series which see Shona, a 50-something librarian, embroiled in a series of adventures, each one more hilarious than the last. She’s conjured up another treat in Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Gondola of Doom. Will time-travelling Shona unravel the Venetian mystery in time? Wojtas will be joined in conversation by Lee Randall.

A Memorial to Dame Muriel Spark

Philanthropists Morag and James Anderson have generously agreed to fund the establishment of a memorial to Dame Muriel in Edinburgh, where she was born in 1918. Designs will be commissioned from sculptors and a Committee will decide on the winner. A possible site for the statue is Princes Street Gardens which is central and non-residential. It also houses some world famous literary monumnets already to Scott and Stevenson, the latter inaugurated by Spark herself. The project is supported by Muriel's companion, and the Society's patron, Penelope Jardine. There is a long road ahead, but we may know more definite details around the time of the Edinburgh International Festival. Watch this space ...

Brodie - but not as you know her ...

Gillian Shirreffs has published a novel with Jean Brodie at its heart. A 30-year journey of love, loss, and the perils of being an object in a human world. Brodie is the irresistible story of six women whose lives intertwine over three decades, told by Brodie, the beloved object that connects them all. On a spring day in 1988, Sandra Galbraith runs her long, curious fingers over a bookshelf tightly packed with the titles of her favourite writer, Muriel Spark. She’s on a quest to find the perfect birthday gift for her niece, Violet, and plucks Brodie, a pristine, new copy of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, from a neat cluster of identikit books. Brodie adores Violet and, over the next two years, hidden in plain sight, learns family secrets of betrayal and a double life. When Violet leaves for university, her brother kidnaps Brodie to give to his disinterested love interest. On the thirty-year journey that follows, Brodie passes through hands and lives and is witness to death, sex, and a wicked stepmother. The novel is published by Into Books £10.99.

"My God, can she write a line!"

Check our the Scotsman Weekend magazine for an interview with Gabriel Quigley, who has adapted The Girls of Slender Means for the forthcoming Royal Lyceum production. In adapting Muriel Spark’s novel about an all-female London boarding house, Gabriel Quigley has tried to home in on the humour, she tells Mark Fisher.

Mastermind Champion - with a little help from Muriel Spark

Congratulations to Ruth Hart from Glasgow who was crowned Mastermind Champion for 2024; she won her semi-final heat with the novels of Muriel Spark as her specialist subject. Charity Engagement Manager, Ruth Hart, from Glasgow was crowned the 2024 Mastermind Champion in another thrilling Grand Final on Monday 1 April on BBC Two, concluding the show’s 51st series. Ruth won the Final with 28 points, scoring a perfect 15/15 in her specialist subject, the artist Francis Bacon. This was the first time Ruth had ever applied to a TV quiz show and the first time she'd ever been on TV. Ruth said of her win: “I was hugely surprised. I really couldn’t believe it, especially because things got off to a terrible start in the general knowledge round! I remember thinking I just needed to keep going and when the buzzer went I really expected Clive [Myrie] to say ‘Oh you’ve just missed it’. It’s all a total blur and I was flabbergasted as I didn’t have any expectations at the start. I had no experience of being on TV, or competitive quizzing, I just watched programmes at home myself – I’d never put it to the test, though!”

Mastermind - the novels of Muriel Spark

Congratulations are due to the contestant on last night's Mastermind who won her heat answering on the novels of Muriel Spark. This has secured her a place in next week's final. If you missed it, you can catch up on BBC iplayer. How would you do? Part of me is sad though - this would have been my specialist subject! Perhaps I could answer on Dame Muriel's life ...?

Time to Play - Norma Allan

James Gilliespie's alumnus Norma Allan launches her new book of poems, Time to Play, at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on March 6 2.30pm. Free tickets can be obtained via the SSC website or Box Office. Norma delivered our online lecture on the 60th anniversary of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 2021.

Memento Mori and Many Primes ....

Head over to BBC4 tonight to see again the BBC adaptation of Memento Mori followed by Kirsty Wark's 2018 Centenary documentary on Muriel Spark ...

Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Gondola of Doom

Our esteemed member and author Olga Wojtas will launch her new novel at Blackwell's, South Bridge, Edinburgh on 18 January 7pm. Tickets are free on the Blackwell's website. Never underestimate a librarian. Fifty-something Edinburgh librarian Shona is a proud former pupil of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, but has a deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which she thinks gives her alma mater a bad name. Impeccably educated and an accomplished linguist, mathematician, martial artist, and musician, Shona is selected by Marcia Blaine herself to travel back in time for a crucial mission in Venice. Finding the city afflicted by what appears to be a new outbreak of the plague, Shona soon encounters the Cornetto family of gondoliers. Lately, a number of their passengers have met a watery fate. Coincidence? Unlikely. She dons a mask, goes undercover and seeks inspiration in the library. But the mystery only deepens. Why do the Cornettos seem so flaky and their explanations wafer-thin, even as they proclaim their innocence? What is going on at the printworks? Shona’s powers of deduction, dissection and prowess as a swimmer are put to the test as she realises that a bitter feud is at play. Can Shona unravel the tapestry of lies and get to the truth? It’s a race against time, but it would be a mistake to underestimate a librarian.