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The Life and Times of Muriel Spark“I am a hoarder of two things: documents and trusted friends” |
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“My childhood in Edinburgh, so far as my memory stretches back (to when I was three or four and on to my school-days ) occurs in bright flashes , illuminating every detail of the scene. It would falsify the situation to try to connect my earliest years in a single narrative.
I was born in Edinburgh, at 160 Bruntsfield Place, the Morningside district , in 1918”.  Muriel Spark was educated in Edinburgh at the city's James Gillespie's High School for Girls, where she thrived while studying English, French, Chemistry, Greek, Physics, Latin and Logic.  She converted to Catholicism in 1954, and Britain's most renowned Catholic writers, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh, gave her significant support and encouragement as she pursued her literary career. She began her career writing critical biographies of 19th century authors including Emily Bronte, Mary Shelley and John Masefield. But it was not until 1957 when she published The Comforters, the first of the novels, that in a very short time she made her reputation.
 1962 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie brought her to the attention of critics and fans. Later a film, starring Maggie Smith for which she won an Oscar for the best actress in 1969, helped to continue the success of the writer and the book.
1962 The Italia Prize for the dramatic radio musical of The Ballad of Peckham Rye 1992 Ingersoll Foundation T.S. Eliot Prize 1993 Dame Commander of the British Empire 1995 Doctor of the University of Heriot Watt 1995 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1996 Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1997 David Cohen British Literature Prize  2001 Muriel Spark Society founded in Edinburgh 2004. Her last book The Finishing School became a best-seller when it was published in 2004  2005 Nomination “The Driver's Seat” for the Inaugural International Man Booker Prize
2005 Honorary Citizen of Civitella in Val di Chiana, Italy  Honorary citizenship was presented by the Mayor of Civitella in Val di Chiana to Muriel Spark, who had lived nearby this medieval town for 30 years.
On 17th April 2007 Memorial Concert, Wigmore Hall, London 
In 2010 “The Driver’s Seat” was shortlisted for the lost Man Booker Prize of 1970.
1971 Hon. D. Litt. University of Strathclyde. Dr Gavin Wallace, who is head of literature at The Scottish Arts Council , said Dame Muriel's influence had been enormous. (BBC Obituary)
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Having attended a memorial concert in New York for Blanche Knopf, Muriel’s friend and publisher, Muriel thought a concert was a good idea and often talked of it. After her death in 2006, her friend Penelope Jardine fulfilled Muriel’s wish and (with the help of Airdrie Armstrong Terenghi) arranged a memorial concert in April 2007 at the Wigmore Hall, London. The programme, which included Schubert’s String Quartet in E flat major, D87, Mendelssohn’s Concert Piece in F minor, op.113, for clarinet, piano and bassoon, Robert Schumann’s Gesange der Fruhe, op.133, Mozart’s Quintet in A major, KV581 for clarinet and strings, was performed by the young international musicians known and admired by Muriel.
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