Muriel Spark
| Dame Muriel Spark | |
|---|---|
Spark in 1960
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| Born | Muriel Sarah Camberg 1 February 1918 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 13 April 2006 (aged 88) Florence, Tuscany, Italy |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist |
| Notable works |
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie The Mandelbaum Gate The Driver's Seat Memento Mori |
Dame Muriel Sarah Spark DBE, CLit, FRSE, FRSL (née Camberg; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006) was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. In 2008, the The Times named Spark as No. 8 in its list of 'the 50 greatest British writers since 1945'.
Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an engineer, and Sarah Elizabeth Maud (née Uezzell). Her father was Jewish and her mother had been raised a Presbyterian, as was Muriel. She was educated at James Gillespie's School for Girls (1923–35). In 1934–35 she took a course in 'commercial correspondence and précis writing' at Heriot-Watt College. She taught English for a brief time and then worked as a secretary in a department store.
On 3 September 1937 she married Sidney Oswald Spark, and soon followed him to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Their son Samuel Robin was born in July 1938. Within months she discovered that her husband was manic depressive and prone to violent outbursts. In 1940 Muriel left Sidney and Robin. She returned to Britain in early 1944, taking residence at the Helena Club in London; years later the club would be her inspiration for the fictional May of Teck Club in The Girls of Slender Means. She worked in Intelligence for the remainder of World War II. She provided money at regular intervals to support her son. Spark maintained it was her intention for her family to set up home in England, but Robin returned to Britain with his father later to be brought up by his maternal grandparents in Scotland.
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