#murielspark — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #murielspark, aggregated by home.social.
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❗️ Important addendum from Nancy Hawkins:
“I had advised him only that a cat helps concentration, not that the cat writes the book for you”
🐈⬛2/3
#Scottish #literature #writing #writingadvice #MurielSpark #cats #InternationalCatDay
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“[I]f you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat.”
—Nancy Hawkins, the majestic narrator of Muriel Spark’s A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON, on why a writer should own a cat
Today, 8 August, is International Cat Day (don’t tell them) 🐈⬛
1/3
#Scottish #literature #writing #writingadvice #MurielSpark #cats #InternationalCatDay
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A Good Read: Louise Welsh & Chris Brookmyre
Currently on BBC Sounds: Louise Welsh & Chris Brookmyre join Harriet Gillbert to discuss two of their favourite books: ESPEDAIR STREET by Iain Banks and MEMENTO MORI by Muriel Spark
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002xzs1
#Scottish #literature #books #novels #IainBanks #MurielSpark #LouiseWelsh #ChristopherBrookmyre
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“[Spark] knew what the world thought of women like her, who prioritize their artistic and intellectual development over marriage, men and motherhood. She had known this, in fact, years before she herself became an object of public scrutiny. It is all there in the work she fought so fiercely to create, right from the beginning.”
—James Bailey on Muriel Spark’s eternal pursuit of the literary life – via @literaryhub
https://lithub.com/an-intellectual-monster-why-muriel-spark-never-married/
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“The similarities between Spark & Schiaparelli are striking: both were witty, satirical. Both were artists depicting female desire & aspiration with a critical eye”
—via @literaryhub – Lilian Pizzichini looks for a dress from Muriel Spark’s THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS
https://lithub.com/sciaparelli-and-spark-on-the-fashion-of-the-girls-of-slender-means/
#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #20thcentury #fashion #MurielSpark #Schiaparelli
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Bang-Bang You’re Dead by Muriel Spark
via BBC SoundsSybil’s friends begin to see her in a new light when they watch film footage, peppered with hippos, poets & shooting affairs, taken during her time in Africa. First published 1958. Dramatised by Gowan Calder.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002tzst
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #MurielSpark #womenwriters #radiodrama
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On BBC Radio 4 Extra, 13 April, 3pm BST & on BBC Sounds thereafter
Drama by Sarah Wooley, based on Muriel Spark’s wartime work creating “Black Propaganda” for MI6. Her job was to produce what she called “a tangled mixture of damaging lies, flattering & plausible truths”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k8v3t
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #WW2 #propaganda #MI6 #20thcentury #novelist #radiodrama
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Where to start with: Muriel Spark
Today, 13 April, marks 20 years since the death of the novelist, short story writer, poet & essayist Muriel Spark. She was best known for her 22 novels – uncanny, astute & witty – beginning with her 1957 debut The Comforters. James Bailey, the author of a new biography, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, guides readers through her oeuvre.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/09/where-to-start-with-muriel-spark
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Revering both cats and the work of Muriel Spark (there are many parallels…), and when I saw its cover, I couldn’t pass up on James Bailey’s new biography of the writer, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark.
Great to visit the Portobello Bookshop today, too, maybe my favourite independent bookshop within easy reach of home.
#MurielSpark #LikeACatLovesABird #TheNineLivesOfMurielSpark #JamesBailey #PortobelloBookshop #Biography #ScottishWriters #Books #Bookstodon #AlwaysJudgeABookByTheCover @bookstodon
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My review of 'The Comforters' (1957) by #MurielSpark,
introduced by Ali Smith. #Bookstodon https://wp.me/sezD85-comf -
From luxury ‘dupes’ to literary doubles: why doppelgangers are everywhere right now https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/06/doppelgangers-sinners-impersonator-conspiracy-theory-mar-a-lago-luxury-dupes-hogg-bronte-nabokov-spark #Books #Culture #Film #Fashion #Sinners #VladimirNabokov #MurielSpark
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Beware of Men Bearing Flowers
“There is a band of (usually) male critical admirers who deny the significance of her love life as if they are gallantly upholding her honour…”
For Valentines’s Day: Prof Willy Maley asks: what does Muriel Spark have to say about love & romance?
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/muriel-spark-on-love
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #MurielSpark #romance #love #ValentinesDay
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My Own Delightful Gordon,
Your letter has moved me deeply as you may imagine. But alas, I must ever decline to be Mrs Lowther…
—from Muriel Spark’s THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (1961): a love letter – as imagined by her pupils – from Miss Brodie to Mr Lowther, the music teacher
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #novel #novella #womenwriters #MurielSpark #love #loveletters #humour #ValentinesDay
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I think that authors’ ghosts creep back
Nightly to haunt the sleeping shelves
And find the books they wrote.
Those authors put final, semi-final touches,
Sometimes whole paragraphs.
Whole pages are added, re-written, revised…—Muriel Spark, “Authors’ Ghosts”
published in COMPLETE POEMS (Carcanet, 2015)18/18
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #poem #poetry
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THE CROOKED DIVIDEND
Essays on Muriel Spark
ed. Gerard Carruthers & Helen StoddartMuriel Spark in British culture; the influence of Scottish literary traditions on her work; how she explores gender, religion, politics; & more
Also online via Project MUSE
17/18
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/occasional_papers/the-crooked-dividend/
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters
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AFTERWORDS: Muriel Spark
“One’s prime is elusive…”—On BBC Sounds: writers Ian Rankin & Zoë Strachan discuss Muriel Spark’s life & work with National Library of Scotland curator Colin McIlroy, & Spark’s friend & memoirist, Alan Taylor
16/18
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018238
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters
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“knowing the challenges Spark overcame makes me doubly grateful for her”
Writing for the Royal Literary Fund, Lauren J. Joseph reflects on a quality many writers have to develop – the “sheer bloody-mindedness” Spark had in spades
15/18
https://www.rlf.org.uk/posts/the-relentless-brilliance-of-muriel-spark/
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #writing
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“It is a good thing to go to Paris for a few days if you have had a lot of trouble, and that is my advice to everyone except Parisians.”
—extracts from A GOOD COMB, by Muriel Spark, ed. Penelope Jardine – via @literaryhub
14/18
https://lithub.com/a-few-words-of-indispensible-advice-from-muriel-spark/
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #advice #Paris
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“Somehow things happened, odd things, when Muriel was around,” recalled her friend Shirley Hazzard. “Everything that happened to Muriel,” according to … Barbara Epler, “had been foreseen”, usually in her books themselves.
—The unnerving vision of Muriel Spark
13/18
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters
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Scottish Scholars & Secrets: Developments of Dark Academia in Edinburgh
Natasha Anderson finds roots of Dark Academia running through Edinburgh’s gothic literary traditions, in works by Robert Louis Stevenson, Muriel Spark, & Ian Rankin
12/18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahpagiSHK78
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #gothic #DarkAcademia #RobertLouisStevenson #IanRankin #Edinburgh
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The Edinburgh & Borders of Sir Walter Scott & Muriel Spark
Prof Gerry Carruthers in 2024, looking at how both Walter Scott & Muriel Spark engage with the ideas of the Borders & of Edinburgh – reflecting the wider complexity of Scotland, the world & the human condition
11/18
https://youtu.be/rZit4cibGds?si=5GccyWk4p7V4Xb6Q
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #WalterScott #Borders #Edinburgh
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‘[Muriel Spark] observes … “Some of [Burns’s] most successful love songs present the girl’s point of view” … citing the bawdy verse “Wha’ll mow me now”, she comments drily: “If this is difficult to decipher, a little imagination will serve the purpose”’
10/18
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/muriel-spark-burns-bright-on-burns-night#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #RobertBurns
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“Spark thrived in institutions. This is because, like Miss Brodie, she was a conservative anarchist”
Frances Wilson on the similarities between Muriel Spark’s favourite teacher & her most famous protagonist – via @literaryhub
9/18
https://lithub.com/behind-the-fame-and-inspirations-of-muriel-spark/
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters
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“Spark’s African experiences clearly had a profound effect on her artistic vision. They made her a keen observer, taught her the value of silence, and gave her an insight into a world of casual cruelty”
—Prof Willy Maley on Muriel Spark & Africa
8/18
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/muriel-spark-and-africa
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #Africa #colonialism
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“What hash Spark’s characters make of those eternal debates over unlikable characters or unlikable women. These women aren’t unlikable, these women are monstrous… Spark looks at her women like a wolf.”
—Parul Sehgal on Muriel Spark, for the New Yorker
7/18
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/what-muriel-spark-saw
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters
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“Muriel Spark gave me a new model for a feminist hero […] It was about loitering—about the quiet subversiveness of simply existing in public as a woman.”
—Beth Jellicoe on Muriel Spark’s LOITERING WITH INTENT
6/18
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #feminism
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“Spark had just passed on to me an unexpected gift: the gift of the future. I’m beginning to think her books are themselves a kind of fruitfulness.”
—Ali Smith on how Muriel Spark gives us the gift of the future
5/18
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/29/ali-smith-on-muriel-spark-at-100
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #AliSmith
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The Crime of Miss Jean Brodie
“In a novel published thirty years after the 1930s, Spark… criticises the inefficiency of public education in its exposure of the tyrannical leaders’ hypocrisy.”
—Kaiyue He looks at what lessons we can learn from Muriel Spark
4/18
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2023/07/teaching-tyranny-the-crime-of-miss-jean-brodie/
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #tyranny
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“Her books are a piercing reminder of how extreme politics can appeal to the sanest-seeming people – & that half-truths & malfeasance are as intrinsic to human nature as breathing”
—The Economist on the continuing relevance of Muriel Spark’s fiction
3/18
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/07/19/muriel-spark-is-a-bard-of-nastiness-and-lies
#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters #extremism
