Books that made Deborah Levy

The playwright, novelist and poet on the cleverness of Muriel Spark, how Marguerite Duras influenced her and why Zora Neale Hurston is underrated.



The book I wish I’d writtenThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Muriel Spark was so clever to encourage readers to admire Jean Brodie, and then have us discover we were admiring a fascist. It’s a skilful flip in empathy that Spark makes look easy.



Read the full article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/dec/14/deborah-levy-books-that-made-me?CMP=share_btn_link

Ian Rankin: By the Book, Brodie and Dr Who ...

Ian Rankin chooses his favourite book of all time in the New York Times ...

 

What’s your favorite book of all time?

That’s such a tough question and the answer would change from day to day. Maybe Muriel Spark’s “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” If I describe it as an absolute Tardis of a book, “Dr. Who” fans may understand. It is bigger on the inside than the outside.

Theroux takes tea with Muriel Spark ...

No this is not weird weekends with his son Louis! Here Theroux pere takes tea with Spark. The hardback is out and a paperback is planned next year. Another idea for an event? Should be a fascinating encounter.

Muriel Spark, Existentialism and the Art of Death

Here's a snappy title coming your way from Edinburgh University Press in 2019! I will get in touch with Cairns Craig and see if he will talk to the Society on this. Absolutely intriguing ...

Nicola Sturgeon celebrates Muriel Spark

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launches the distribution of Muriel Spark's novels to Scottish public libraries yesterday. Announcing the free book scheme during a visit to Loanhead public library in Midlothian, Ms Sturgeon said: “Muriel Spark is one of Scotland’s greatest authors and it is fitting that we celebrate the centenary of her birth with this donation to libraries. “I’ve been an avid reader of her books since I was young and I’m very pleased that many more people will now be able to enjoy her work. For me, reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures.”

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/scotland/every-library-in-scotland-given-complete-collection-of-muriel-spark-novels/

The statue

Muriel Spark across Scotland

Today First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launched the distribution of complete sets of Muriel Spark novels to all public libraries in Scotland - all 491 of them! Additionally, every secondary school in Edinburgh will receive a set. This extremely generous initiative has been funded by the Scottish Government and Postcode Lottery. What a way to celebrate the end of the centenary! Happy reading to all!

Muriel Spark and Africa

Below is a link to an article by Professor Willy Maley on Spark and Africa:

http://scottishbooktrust.com/blog/reading/2018/11/long-read-muriel-spark-and-africa?fbclid=IwAR0fpw_g49so_gFQa6zNR-8Ej90Hs-TR1i3-Y17bu0HXQrz-9irj-JJcrPY

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.

Janice Galloway - there's something about Muriel ...

Muriel Spark is one of the most extraordinary writers of the 20th Century, and 2018 marks the centenary of her birth. Prolific, needle-bright and sharp as a tack, her novels shine as brightly today as they ever did. Janice Galloway talks about the work, wit and no-nonsense style of one of Scotland’s most original writers, in an event suitable for both fans of Muriel Spark and for those unfamiliar with her work alike.

29 September 8.30pm

Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine.

£8

 

The Public Image (Scottish Lady Tiger)

The Public Image (Scottish Lady Tiger)
—A response to the life of Muriel Spark by Michael Curran

Video and performance artist Michael Curran has created an environment in which a series of actions and performances inspired by the life and work of Muriel Spark can take place. Generator Projects acts as a laboratory, a press office, a casting room, and a film set for Curran and his collaborators to dissect the author’s fascination with appearances and ‘what lies beneath’.

Curran will inhabit the space for the full duration of the show's run—reading aloud from Spark's twenty-two novels, drawing on the walls, playing records, sitting in contemplation soaking his feet, and shredding books to make paper amongst an assortment of objects, videos, and situations which reference Spark's oeuvre and life. The exhibition will act accumulatively, as new elements are introduced or taken away, with the final result an accretion of Curran's time occupying the space.

This exhibition aims to explore some of the ambiguities concerning Spark—the exile, the émigré, and the enigma. As part of the project, Generator is producing an LP The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark with sound artists Viralux aka Trish Lyons & Gordon Dawson,[BOX] (Neil McIntee), UrbanFarmHand (Ben Seal), Somerset Moan (Emil Thompson), Ana Cavic, AD Crawforth, and New Root Canal (Rufus Mich), chosen by Michael Curran and the show’s curator Hari MacMillan. This will be manufactured during the show and released at the finishing party along with performances by the artists on the LP.

All of Spark's novels are available in the space and visitors are encouraged to read from them either silently or out loud. The author considered herself as a poet first and foremost—seeing her novels as long form poetry. Curran has commissioned artistsRebecca Sharp and Valerie Sutton to create a scent named POETA, evoking Spark's luminous aura. Rebecca will introduce the perfume at the closing party on Sunday the 30^th of September at 2pm.

The show will conclude with Curran’s performative lecture Scottish Lady Tiger followed by a performance by some of the artists featured on The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark LP during a closing event that invites local artists, performers, and project participants to join together in celebration of Muriel Spark's Centenary.

Generator is open Thurs – Sun 12-5pm or by appointment

 

generatorprojects.co.uk

scottishladytiger.com

scottishladytiger@gmail.com

Crimes and Misdemeanours of Muriel Spark

The Crimes and Misdemeanours of Muriel Spark – Louise Welsh, Zoe Strachan and Alan Taylor at Bloody Scotland

September 23 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

£8 – £9

Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling

www.bloodyscotland.com

 

New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women

Dame Muriel, and her inspiring teacher Christina Kay, are both included in the New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, to be published by Edinburgh University Press next month. The new edition is published to mark the centenary of women's suffrage, and since Muriel had a suffragette in her family history, we hope she would have been pleased. It would be timely to reread her short story on the movement, Harper and Wilton.