Women who world changed the
Sophie Mcvinnie unravels the life of the leading literary figure.
DAME Muriel Spark was one of Scotland’s most prolific writers. Born on February 1, 1918, in Edinburgh’s Morningside, Muriel was the second child of factory worker Bernard Camberg and his wife Sarah.
Money was tight and the couple took in lodgers, creating a lively and chaotic household.
Muriel attended James Gillespie’s High School for Girls where she met teacher Miss Christina Kay, who inspired Muriel’s masterpiece “The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie”, 30 years later.
This novel is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s finest books, as well as a modern classic.
Miss Kay was Jean Brodie in many ways.
Her teaching methods were alternative, she was an admirer of Mussolini and she coined Brodie’s catchphrase, “crème de la crème”.
When Miss Kay took Muriel to see dancer Anna Pavlova in Edinburgh, the young Muriel became passionate about creative fiction and poetry, spending her free time writing.
At the age of twelve, she won the Walter Scott Prize for one of her poems.
After studying business and English at Heriot-watt College, Muriel began working as a clerk.
Aged nineteen, she met Sydney Oswald Spark – a maths teacher, thirteen years older than Muriel.
After marrying in 1937, they moved to southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, to start a new life together.
But soon after they arrived, it transpired that Sydney – or SOS, as Muriel would later refer to him – had left his old teaching post due to mental illness.
It took the birth of their son, Robin, and the subsequent spiralling of Sydney’s mental health, for Muriel to eventually divorce him and return to the UK.
Unfortunately, though, Robin had to stay behind in boarding school.
Once in London, Muriel worked her way up the literacy ladder.
“The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie” was published in 1961, and was a smash hit.
Muriel was made an Officer of the British Empire in 1967, and died in 2006, aged eighty-eight, in Italy.
Her distinct narrative is continually recognised today, and her work will always be a cornerstone in British literacy.