How Muriel Spark’s feud with son added 3,300% to the price of Miss Jean Brodie
THE bitter feud that raged for decades between one of Britain’s most famous novelists, Dame Muriel Spark, and her son Robin has had one surprising side effect – pushing up the price of a copy of her most famous work by more than £20,000.
The signed edition of Dame Muriel’s 1961 classic The Prime Of Mis s Je a n Bro di e ha d be e n expected to go for £500 when it was put up for sale last week – but fetched an astonishing £ 17,000, rising to £21,250 when auctioneer’s fees and charges were added.
The book, inscribed with the message ‘To Robin Love and wonkies, mummy xxx’, was part of a collection of 14 lots that belonged to Robin Spark, a painter who died agedag 78 in 2016,201 which were auctionedauctio on Wednesday. AnotherAno lot sold for 12 times its original estimate of £1,500, before fees. Dame Muriel’s long-running battle with her son became public in the 1990s when it emerged that he had taken offence at his mother’s decision to question the family’s Jewish roots. But last year The Mail on Sunday published unseen letters between the pair which showed the rift began decades earlier.
Experts last night said the feud would have added to the value of the lots which, in total, sold for more than £98,000, with auctioneer’s fees and charges included.
Spark’s biographer Professor Martin Stannard said: ‘£17,000 for a single book is a very high figure, the kind you might expect a manuscript to fetch. I think the nature of their relationship added to their value.’
Cathy Marsden, of Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull, which sold the items, said: ‘It goes to show the importance provenance can play. We have sold a signed Miss Jean Brodie before but it went for £390.
‘It was a very publicised relationship and that may have played a part in adding to their value.’
The correspondence published by the MoS showed Robin felt abandoned by his mother, who divorced his manic depressive father and left him, aged seven, with his grandparents while she pursued her glittering career overseas.
For her part, Dame Muriel resented the feelings of guilt she was supposed to feel for pursuing a career. In one letter dated 1966, the author told Robin she was too busy to attend his wedding in person.
The items sold indicate the author, who saw The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie made into an Oscar-winning film starring Maggie Smith, continued to reach out to her son even when the pair were barely speaking. One of the tomes included the message: ‘Dearest Rob I bet you can’t read this book from cover to cover, fondest love xxx mum.’
Another, given to Robin for his 15th birthday in 1953, was signed ‘with love from his mummy’.
The fact that Robin Spark chose to keep hold of the books might be seen as proof that he never stopped loving his mother despite the feud.