News for 2008

Commemorative Flagstone
At Makars’ Court, Edinburgh, Muriel Spark now has a memorial flagstone.
The Society would like to thank the generous donation which made it possible for us to have this installed.

The flagstone was uncovered by Alan Taylor, friend of Muriel Spark and a well-known Scottish journalist and writer, on Saturday 31st May 2008 – 90 years after she was born.

The Society was asked to write a short introduction about Spark and the inscription on the flagstone for the Writers’ Museum. 

Best known for her novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, based largely on her schooldays at James Gillespie’s School, Edinburgh, Muriel Spark was one of the most original and influential writers of the late twentieth century.  She left Edinburgh for Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on her marriage at 18. After her divorce she spent her whole working life (in London, New York and Italy) in the literary world; firstly in publishing and following her conversion to Catholicism at the age of 46, as a writer of biographies, novels, radio plays and poetry. She won many prizes and awards and was conferred a Dame in 1993.  She died, and is buried, in Tuscany, Italy.

The flagstone inscription ‘The Transfiguration of the Commonplace’ is taken from the last page of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.   
‘And there was that day when the inquiring young man came to see Sandy because of her strange book of psychology, ‘The Transfiguration of the Commonplace’…

Spark ‘transfigures the commonplace’ in every novel: she writes of ordinary men and women and their domestic, emotional or psychological problems in a witty, succinct, dark and daring way. 

Although her resting place is in Italy, it is fitting that a lasting memorial to her is in Edinburgh; the city she describes as ‘the place where I was first understood.’

Short Story Competition

Maggie O’Farrell announced her choice as winner of the competition at our AGM in the Bruntsfield Hotel on Monday 9th June 2008.

The winner is Kate Blackadder for her story Four in the Morning.

The three runners-up were Val Davies, Kath Hardie and Ann Maclaren. Congratulations to all of them.

And congratulations too to Tommy Pia of James Gillespie’s School for winning their annual Muriel Spark Creative Writing Competition – and also for winning the Pushkin Prize.

All these stories (and Tommy’s poem) will shortly be appearing on our website.

Thanks to the committee for choosing the four finalists – and special thanks to Maggie O’Farrell for deciding the winner.

Forthcoming event in 2008

In November (date still to be finalised) the annual Muriel Spark Lecture will be given by Alan Taylor.

Essay by Andrew MacGill
GIVING PLEASURE – PROVOKING THOUGHT Click here to download

NLS Archive pages www.nls.uk/murielspark