Muriel Spark
DDevotees of DowntonAbbey hhave enjoyed Dame Maggie SSmith’s portrayal of Violet CCrawley and HarryPotter ddevotees will always rremember her as Professor MMcGonagall. However, those wwith longer memories will rremember her as Jean BBrodie, an Edinburgh sschoolteacher in film adaptation of Muriel Spark’s novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Spark was Edinburgh born and bred and it is believed that the fictional school in the novel – Marcia Blaine School – was based on the ver y school she was educated in. Part of the Oscar-winning film was shot in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, and to that end a series of steps leading from that famous part of the city were re-christened The Jean Brodie Steps. However, Muriel Spark herself – once ranked number 8 in a list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 – was recognised by Edinburgh City Council by a pathway on Bruntsfield Links that was called Muriel Spark Way. The Muriel Spark Society, based in Edinburgh, was formed in 2001 to promote and celebrate her work.