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Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography
This autobiography, now available in paperback, offers a wonderfully vivid account of the people and places that inspired so much of Muriel Spark's writing, such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Here, readers will find high comedy, betrayal, rigorous intelligence, the odd twist of faith, and mysterious grace--all the elements that have delighted her readers for more than 35 years. Photos.
213 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Muriel Spark
217 books1,397 followersDame Muriel Spark, DBE was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. She has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". In 2010, Spark was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.
Spark received eight honorary doctorates in her lifetime. These included a Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.
Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, and considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film.
Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. She has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". In 2010, Spark was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.
Spark received eight honorary doctorates in her lifetime. These included a Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.
Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, and considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film.
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June 1, 2019There's a sense in which Curriculum Vitae is the perfect model of what a writer's autobiography should be. Muriel Spark reveals very little that doesn't have a bearing on her writing, and so, for a reader like me who has read most of what she wrote, this autobiography connects her writing to her life perfectly. I don't ask much more than that from an account of a writer's life. The reason I want to read about any writer's life is to see where the inspiration for the writing comes from, and to try to understand why the writer adopts a particular style rather than another one. Muriel Spark rewarded me well in those respects.
If a reader has curiosity about other aspects of the writer's life, such an account won't satisfy them. As if to frustrate our curiosity, Spark ends this autobiography (written in her mid-seventies) in 1958 when she was forty. The fame and fortune that she would achieve after the publication of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and which we might imagine would be the most interesting and richest part of her life, was still a couple of years off at this point. By ending before her big break, it looks as if she is deliberately refusing to give readers what they might most want.
But with Muriel Spark, things are not always as they seem. I've begun to realise that her best novels, though written after 1958, are mostly inspired by her earlier life. Those books tell of her schooldays in Edinburgh, of the end of the war, of the struggle to earn a living in London in the late forties while trying to write poetry. Some of those books also describe the period in the fifties when she worked in publishing and editing poetry magazines. This was the time when her fiction writing style seems to have been honed. We might imagine that the fiction writing would reveal her poet origins but I haven't found that to be the case. Although her plots can be loose and sprawling, her writing style is restrained and concise, as if deliberately avoiding any great depths of emotion. I feel her style must have been influenced by her proofreading experience: I learned how to copy-edit tactfully. I recall that I took out a great many adjectives.
The years after she left school and before she was recognised as a literary success were years of poverty and hardship and of many difficult life lessons — she tells us briefly of her marriage in Rhodesia at nineteen, how she had a son at twenty, and that she was divorced by the time she was twenty-five. All through that time, she nourished a fierce determination to write, and stored away observations and memories for future use. Most of the memorable experiences of my life I have celebrated, or used for a background in a short story or novel. However, she seems to have selected carefully what she would rework into fiction; neither her ex-husband nor her son ever feature in her novels, and those of her characters who seem the most closely modeled on herself, rarely reveal their deeper feelings.
None of the novels I've read describe her post-1960 life, the time when she had become famous, well-off and well-travelled, though several are set in locations abroad. Those books, apart from The Mandelbaum Gate, don't feel in the least autobiographical, and were mostly not memorable for me. They are more like stories inspired by 'faits divers' in a newspaper or some other passing preoccupation. It's as if her own life stopped offering her inspiration once it stopped being a struggle, and she then had to look elsewhere for ideas, and had to make do with what she found.
I'm left with the conclusion that the first half of her life, the 'poor' half, was by far the richest.
If a reader has curiosity about other aspects of the writer's life, such an account won't satisfy them. As if to frustrate our curiosity, Spark ends this autobiography (written in her mid-seventies) in 1958 when she was forty. The fame and fortune that she would achieve after the publication of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and which we might imagine would be the most interesting and richest part of her life, was still a couple of years off at this point. By ending before her big break, it looks as if she is deliberately refusing to give readers what they might most want.
But with Muriel Spark, things are not always as they seem. I've begun to realise that her best novels, though written after 1958, are mostly inspired by her earlier life. Those books tell of her schooldays in Edinburgh, of the end of the war, of the struggle to earn a living in London in the late forties while trying to write poetry. Some of those books also describe the period in the fifties when she worked in publishing and editing poetry magazines. This was the time when her fiction writing style seems to have been honed. We might imagine that the fiction writing would reveal her poet origins but I haven't found that to be the case. Although her plots can be loose and sprawling, her writing style is restrained and concise, as if deliberately avoiding any great depths of emotion. I feel her style must have been influenced by her proofreading experience: I learned how to copy-edit tactfully. I recall that I took out a great many adjectives.
The years after she left school and before she was recognised as a literary success were years of poverty and hardship and of many difficult life lessons — she tells us briefly of her marriage in Rhodesia at nineteen, how she had a son at twenty, and that she was divorced by the time she was twenty-five. All through that time, she nourished a fierce determination to write, and stored away observations and memories for future use. Most of the memorable experiences of my life I have celebrated, or used for a background in a short story or novel. However, she seems to have selected carefully what she would rework into fiction; neither her ex-husband nor her son ever feature in her novels, and those of her characters who seem the most closely modeled on herself, rarely reveal their deeper feelings.
None of the novels I've read describe her post-1960 life, the time when she had become famous, well-off and well-travelled, though several are set in locations abroad. Those books, apart from The Mandelbaum Gate, don't feel in the least autobiographical, and were mostly not memorable for me. They are more like stories inspired by 'faits divers' in a newspaper or some other passing preoccupation. It's as if her own life stopped offering her inspiration once it stopped being a struggle, and she then had to look elsewhere for ideas, and had to make do with what she found.
I'm left with the conclusion that the first half of her life, the 'poor' half, was by far the richest.
February 15, 2025
They did things differently in post-WWI Edinburgh, and Muriel Spark, born there in 1918, is here to elucidate. Subjects include the difference between five o'clock, six o'clock tea, and tea at six thirty, and the meaning behind a guinea (a genteel denomination). In Edinburgh they spoke of 'seasonable weather'—never inclement—and 'cried' a spade a spade. There are memories of her grandmother, once a suffragette, and as she muses she reveals the real-life origin of stories such as "Bang-Bang You're Dead" as well as the identity of the teacher who served as inspiration for Miss Jean Brodie. But not every detail is imbued with supreme significance.
There's the books she did not write—The Department Store, or the novel set on a passenger ship—and her thoughts on some of the writers she had read (Ivy Compton-Burnett). She chronicles her time in Southern Rhodesia, reflecting on the brutality and unreality of Dutch-descended South Africans (the equalivalent of the modern-day American GOP)—for me, a highlight. And then there's London during the last of WWII (background for The Girls of Slender Means as well as The Hothouse by the East River). Spark spends the penultimate section seemingly settling scores with a number of early adversaries, which is a bit of a detractor, but from this chapter comes two deliciously bitchy quotes (both regarding Marie Stopes, with whom Spark crossed paths):
There's the books she did not write—The Department Store, or the novel set on a passenger ship—and her thoughts on some of the writers she had read (Ivy Compton-Burnett). She chronicles her time in Southern Rhodesia, reflecting on the brutality and unreality of Dutch-descended South Africans (the equalivalent of the modern-day American GOP)—for me, a highlight. And then there's London during the last of WWII (background for The Girls of Slender Means as well as The Hothouse by the East River). Spark spends the penultimate section seemingly settling scores with a number of early adversaries, which is a bit of a detractor, but from this chapter comes two deliciously bitchy quotes (both regarding Marie Stopes, with whom Spark crossed paths):
I was young and pretty and she had totally succumbed to the law of gravity without attempting to do a thing about it.and
I used to think it a pity that her mother rather than she had not thought of birth control.Spark only briefly touches on her conversion to Catholicism and concludes the volume with the publication of her first novel, The Comforters.
November 18, 2018
I certainly enjoyed Curriculum Vitae, it is a short, though thoroughly readable autobiography, although I can’t say I really got to know Muriel Spark herself – for me she remains rather elusive. Though Muriel the child, is perhaps a little clearer than Muriel the grown woman, the writer, the mother – it is that later Muriel who I founder harder to really envisage. Young Muriel; a child who took simple joy in a bicycle, who loved visiting her grandparents at their shop in Watford.
“It was an exceptional bike. I found I could make up poetry and stories in my head as I whizzed along, ringing my bell to scatter such of the sauntering population, with their little dogs, as were in my way.”
Born to a Jewish father and an English, Presbyterian mother Muriel Spark does paint a touching, colourful portrait of her Edinburgh childhood. Butter came from the Buttercup Dairy Company, bread rolls bought from the baker, fresh and warm from the oven. Through a variety of anecdotes, we see young Muriel grow up in an environment where her mother just doesn’t sound the same as the other mothers. School was James Gillespie’s High school for girls, and here Muriel was to be taught by Miss Christina Kay. This section of Curriculum Vitae concerning Muriel’s childhood and schooldays was my favourite part of the book.
“I fell into Miss Kay’s hands at the age of eleven. It might well be said that she fell into my hands. Little did she know, little did I know, that she bore within her the seeds of the future Miss Jean Brodie, the main character in my novel, in a play on the West End of London and on Broadway, in a film and a television series.”
Muriel Spark doesn’t ignore the difficult or painful aspects of her life, but neither does she go into great detail – certainly her account is unsentimental which may be a good thing. However, it feels as if she really wasn’t comfortable revealing too much
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/...
“It was an exceptional bike. I found I could make up poetry and stories in my head as I whizzed along, ringing my bell to scatter such of the sauntering population, with their little dogs, as were in my way.”
Born to a Jewish father and an English, Presbyterian mother Muriel Spark does paint a touching, colourful portrait of her Edinburgh childhood. Butter came from the Buttercup Dairy Company, bread rolls bought from the baker, fresh and warm from the oven. Through a variety of anecdotes, we see young Muriel grow up in an environment where her mother just doesn’t sound the same as the other mothers. School was James Gillespie’s High school for girls, and here Muriel was to be taught by Miss Christina Kay. This section of Curriculum Vitae concerning Muriel’s childhood and schooldays was my favourite part of the book.
“I fell into Miss Kay’s hands at the age of eleven. It might well be said that she fell into my hands. Little did she know, little did I know, that she bore within her the seeds of the future Miss Jean Brodie, the main character in my novel, in a play on the West End of London and on Broadway, in a film and a television series.”
Muriel Spark doesn’t ignore the difficult or painful aspects of her life, but neither does she go into great detail – certainly her account is unsentimental which may be a good thing. However, it feels as if she really wasn’t comfortable revealing too much
Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/...
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September 26, 2022An excellent memoir of Spark's life before fame arrived. I feel like I have known her, she shares so much in common with my assorted aunts and great-aunts/
August 2, 2009
I finished reading this memoir yesterday (February 2, 2009) and found it interesting since the author wrote so well and clearly that we readers can understand how her literay life had developed and why. It all started some 35 years ago in the late 70s when I watched a film entitled, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in a movie theatre on Sukhumvit Road (defunct, a small shopping mall instead there). The film was so wonderful that I kept wondering who wrote such a fantastic novel. I'm not sure how I could find her name, Muriel Spark, then but I later bought a Penguin paperback (same title) to read and found it a bit tough since she of course wrote to general public, that is, those with English as mother tongue. Some parts quite obscure to me were adapted in the film normally. From her own words, we can learn a lot how she coped with hardships after World War II, that is, she tried to work in various jobs successful with her poetry talents and later was encouraged by friends/ publishing companies to write novels.
September 22, 2016
I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book. Who doesn't want bread and butter, and a delicious pot of tea ?
November 19, 2025
After finishing the excellent ‘Electric Spark’ a biography of the writer Muriel Spark, I decided to read her autobiography. The biography covers the same period as Curriculum Vitae and frequently references it. The biographers take on the writer’s autobiography is pretty negative. She sees the book as devoid of the prickly imagination of Muriel’s, the thing that gives her fiction its distinction.
Muriel Spark clearly places herself and her behavior in the best possible light. That is a healthy approach for any human being. Wallowing in one’s failures or faults is self indulgent and unhelpful. Maybe the writer was expecting more self insight by the writer. In any case she seems disappointed by the effort.
Yes there is score settling particularly in the case of Derek Stanford who sold intimate letters Muriel had sent him. This does seem worthy of disdain. But I don’t find the book at all boring or unworthy of Muriel. She doesn’t need to boast about her achievements. It is in fact impressive that she managed to overcome so much such as a bad marriage stuck in Africa only to find literary success a decade later in Britain.
The most helpful insight of her autobiography is what she says about her novels. She sees them as poetic rather prose based. This makes sense because it means that Spark isn’t a slave to realism as such. If realism is useful to tell a story or illuminate a situation she uses it but her writing occupies a space that is hard to pigeonhole. It has a strange spiritual quality that feels authentic and witty.
Muriel Spark clearly places herself and her behavior in the best possible light. That is a healthy approach for any human being. Wallowing in one’s failures or faults is self indulgent and unhelpful. Maybe the writer was expecting more self insight by the writer. In any case she seems disappointed by the effort.
Yes there is score settling particularly in the case of Derek Stanford who sold intimate letters Muriel had sent him. This does seem worthy of disdain. But I don’t find the book at all boring or unworthy of Muriel. She doesn’t need to boast about her achievements. It is in fact impressive that she managed to overcome so much such as a bad marriage stuck in Africa only to find literary success a decade later in Britain.
The most helpful insight of her autobiography is what she says about her novels. She sees them as poetic rather prose based. This makes sense because it means that Spark isn’t a slave to realism as such. If realism is useful to tell a story or illuminate a situation she uses it but her writing occupies a space that is hard to pigeonhole. It has a strange spiritual quality that feels authentic and witty.
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January 9, 2013I should probably have read this before reading the large authorized biography. Still, that's not really a problem. The two books have different goals and points of view. This memoir, read as literature, is quite engaging for the first five chapters, and follows in a perhaps now-defunct tradition of autobiographies by writers or other highly literate figures wherein the author beautifully evokes the past without dwelling heavily on her/his own psychology and feelings. Chapter six, which deals with Spark's adventures at the Poetry Society, is interesting for providing background on her novel Loitering with Intent. One suspects that her antagonists at the Poetry Society were just as foolish, self-important, and malicious as she describes them, but it is also possible that she lacked diplomacy in dealing with them (for example telling the elderly and perhaps senile birth control activist Marie Stopes "...your attitude fills me with contempt, as it would all right-thinking people). Chapter seven, while still interesting, is focused on setting the record straight regarding mistakes about her, notably those published by a sloppy-about-facts former lover. Here one decidedly sees an almost vindictive side of her character. The desire to set the record straight is entirely natural, but her goal could have been accomplished without actually trashing a man she was involved with for several years and (if memory serves me) came close to marrying. It would have been enough to say that he was sloppy about facts in both his scholarship and his memories and that his account of her was sadly unreliable.
It has been pointed out, both by her biographer and by other readers, that this memoir skates lightly over many momentous and painful parts of her life. She alludes to, but does not discuss, her family's relative poverty or her mother's drinking. She does not detail her reasons for marrying S. O. Spark, or describe examples of his mental instability, or say much about first leaving her son in Rhodesia and then letting her parents raise him. At the same time she does not fail to mention these things.
In thinking over this memoir, I was reminded of my own experience with blogging and writing the biographical portions of grant applications. It was always clear to me that these endeavors were not "personal writing" in the sense of being about me and for me, but rather they were about me for the benefit of others. I would not write untruths, but I was nonetheless working with a persona that only represented part of me and not all of me. I was not hiding things, but there was editorial control over what was said and how I said it. Writing for other people caused me to describe many interesting things that I would not have bothered to jot down otherwise, while at the same time I eschewed detailing my emotions. The resulting grant proposals and blog posts were generally well received.
I think, thus, that while I would have been interested to learn more about Muriel Spark's feelings about parts of her development, from the start of the memoir she set a tone and a level of disclosure that remained consistent for the first five chapters, but which changed significantly in the last two as she began to deal with becoming a public figure. Perhaps she would have done better to have written one memoir about her life prior to working for the Poetry Society, and a second that began there and dealt with her rise to prominence. Had she chosen to write a cattier second memoir about her life as a rising and then famous writer, it would have been cohesive and perhaps successful in a different way than the first.
It has been pointed out, both by her biographer and by other readers, that this memoir skates lightly over many momentous and painful parts of her life. She alludes to, but does not discuss, her family's relative poverty or her mother's drinking. She does not detail her reasons for marrying S. O. Spark, or describe examples of his mental instability, or say much about first leaving her son in Rhodesia and then letting her parents raise him. At the same time she does not fail to mention these things.
In thinking over this memoir, I was reminded of my own experience with blogging and writing the biographical portions of grant applications. It was always clear to me that these endeavors were not "personal writing" in the sense of being about me and for me, but rather they were about me for the benefit of others. I would not write untruths, but I was nonetheless working with a persona that only represented part of me and not all of me. I was not hiding things, but there was editorial control over what was said and how I said it. Writing for other people caused me to describe many interesting things that I would not have bothered to jot down otherwise, while at the same time I eschewed detailing my emotions. The resulting grant proposals and blog posts were generally well received.
I think, thus, that while I would have been interested to learn more about Muriel Spark's feelings about parts of her development, from the start of the memoir she set a tone and a level of disclosure that remained consistent for the first five chapters, but which changed significantly in the last two as she began to deal with becoming a public figure. Perhaps she would have done better to have written one memoir about her life prior to working for the Poetry Society, and a second that began there and dealt with her rise to prominence. Had she chosen to write a cattier second memoir about her life as a rising and then famous writer, it would have been cohesive and perhaps successful in a different way than the first.
December 19, 2015
I didn't really know that much about Muriel Spark other than that she was Scottish and I have been enjoying reading her books. So it was interesting to read her autobiography covering the first few decades of her life. Starting off with her childhood in Edinburgh, where she was born in 1918, through her marriage in Africa, living in various parts of Rhodesia, then back to the UK working in London, first with the foreign office during the second world war, and then various jobs on various artistic magazines, before finally coming around to starting out as a novelist.
I found the chapters on her childhood in Edinburgh particularly interesting. Both because I've lived in Edinburgh, so I find it fascinating to read about other experiences of the same place (although obviously very different times!). Her first chapter was on early childhood, and I loved the way it was broken up into themes and memories. Because as she points out, early childhood is remembered that way rather than a continuous chronological series of events. It's also interesting to see where various experiences or people she knew led to books and short stories that she has written (and she does point this out for you).
Her time in London working on the magazines seems to have been a trying time and she appears to have come across a lot of people who wished her ill. The goings on with the poetry magazine she edited for a few years sounds like a nightmare. Not at all the vision of poets and people who appreciate poetry I had, rather a bunch of vicious, insecure and backstabbing loonies. Wierd as well to see Marie Stopes' name pop up, but in this case as some kind of ageing unstable mad woman. Time and again Spark is the victim in all of this, but it would be interesting to hear the other side of all of these stories. At times in the later part of the book it does feel a bit like she's got an axe or two to grind. Although I can imagine it must be a horrible feeling to find "friends" have pinched some of your childhood jotters and flogged them to universities when you grew famous - or even flogged letters you wrote to them.
The later part of the book has left me a little bit ambivilent. At moments she comes over as a bit of an intellectual snob - referring to a lot of other poets as "feeble writers"; and also that she's very full of her own self-marvellousness, and setting a few scores straight with people she had run-ins with over the years. I think I may stick to her fiction.
I found the chapters on her childhood in Edinburgh particularly interesting. Both because I've lived in Edinburgh, so I find it fascinating to read about other experiences of the same place (although obviously very different times!). Her first chapter was on early childhood, and I loved the way it was broken up into themes and memories. Because as she points out, early childhood is remembered that way rather than a continuous chronological series of events. It's also interesting to see where various experiences or people she knew led to books and short stories that she has written (and she does point this out for you).
Her time in London working on the magazines seems to have been a trying time and she appears to have come across a lot of people who wished her ill. The goings on with the poetry magazine she edited for a few years sounds like a nightmare. Not at all the vision of poets and people who appreciate poetry I had, rather a bunch of vicious, insecure and backstabbing loonies. Wierd as well to see Marie Stopes' name pop up, but in this case as some kind of ageing unstable mad woman. Time and again Spark is the victim in all of this, but it would be interesting to hear the other side of all of these stories. At times in the later part of the book it does feel a bit like she's got an axe or two to grind. Although I can imagine it must be a horrible feeling to find "friends" have pinched some of your childhood jotters and flogged them to universities when you grew famous - or even flogged letters you wrote to them.
The later part of the book has left me a little bit ambivilent. At moments she comes over as a bit of an intellectual snob - referring to a lot of other poets as "feeble writers"; and also that she's very full of her own self-marvellousness, and setting a few scores straight with people she had run-ins with over the years. I think I may stick to her fiction.
August 28, 2011
Witty, spunky, high-spirited. I haven't read any of Spark's work previously, and I plan to. A wonderfully observant and detailed romp through Edinburgh in the 1930s; thoughts on being white in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa around 1940; wartime UK; and delightfully narrated nasty little trials and tests of a young woman in a position of professional authority. Great fun, though I don't disagree with other readers' comments that the subject of Spark's son seems a bit dubious. It is indeed strange that, since she does tell of him, she seems a bit detached (given the circumstances of their longtime separation during his formative years). Even so, I am in no position to pass judgment on the author's personal choices or her chosen method of writing about them. The writing is first-class.
March 21, 2010
Interesting, but I wanted more.
October 21, 2014
A clear eyed unsentimental autobiography. A model for others perhaps
August 25, 2024
Having recently borrowed a few of Ms Spark’s novels from the library, and been quite enchanted by them, I was glad to pick up her autobiography published in 1992. She was born in 1918 so the perspective from 1992 must have given her limitless options of what to include. Maybe she intended to write further autobiographical volumes because this book end in the 1950s. She states that she wants to put the record straight about certain aspects of her life but I found the mix of early life memories and early employment and publication accounts and personalities a bit uncomfortable.
The early life accounts have lovely period detail but I found them a little tedious and was much more interested when she started work in the various magazine, journal and book publishers, which were obviously material for some of her novels. It is very interesting to hear her describe which personalities metamorphosed into book characters and to realise they were based on real people. Various books are accounted for but from the vantage of 1992 many more of her books could have been included.
The second part of the autobiography is much more interesting as an account of how she struggled to live on limited means and was helped by other authors and editors along the way. You end up with a clear view of her progression into success as a writer and the personalities encountered. However she never really reveals her own dramas and feelings in any kind of self analytical way. She sets the record straight about how badly she was treated by various influential people along the way - she hoarded all correspondence and written details of her personal life as a means of combatting falsehoods and misrepresentations - and you wonder how much emotional damage was done - but she doesn’t elaborate on her own feelings. You often read of her fierce defence of her privacy and the book illustrates this pretty well. Her husband and child have a place in the story but these important intimate relationships are hugely neglected in detail.
It’s a carefully edited view of her own life with plenty of interesting sections about her writing practice, publishing history, people encountered who she loved and loathed, and surprising extravagances in lifestyle given her claims of financial struggles. But somewhat unsatisfactory.
I certainly want to read many of her other novels and stories but wonder if the recent biography, which I picked up in a lovely Edinburgh second hand bookshop last week, will reveal a lot more?
The early life accounts have lovely period detail but I found them a little tedious and was much more interested when she started work in the various magazine, journal and book publishers, which were obviously material for some of her novels. It is very interesting to hear her describe which personalities metamorphosed into book characters and to realise they were based on real people. Various books are accounted for but from the vantage of 1992 many more of her books could have been included.
The second part of the autobiography is much more interesting as an account of how she struggled to live on limited means and was helped by other authors and editors along the way. You end up with a clear view of her progression into success as a writer and the personalities encountered. However she never really reveals her own dramas and feelings in any kind of self analytical way. She sets the record straight about how badly she was treated by various influential people along the way - she hoarded all correspondence and written details of her personal life as a means of combatting falsehoods and misrepresentations - and you wonder how much emotional damage was done - but she doesn’t elaborate on her own feelings. You often read of her fierce defence of her privacy and the book illustrates this pretty well. Her husband and child have a place in the story but these important intimate relationships are hugely neglected in detail.
It’s a carefully edited view of her own life with plenty of interesting sections about her writing practice, publishing history, people encountered who she loved and loathed, and surprising extravagances in lifestyle given her claims of financial struggles. But somewhat unsatisfactory.
I certainly want to read many of her other novels and stories but wonder if the recent biography, which I picked up in a lovely Edinburgh second hand bookshop last week, will reveal a lot more?
October 6, 2017
An interesting autobiography of Muriel Spark's eventful life up until the publication of her first novel in 1957 when she was 39 years old. This autobiography was published in 1992 and throughout the book the author is writing about events that happened over 40 years ago. She was able to provide documentary support for a number of her comments as she kept all her paperwork, everything from letters, tax forms, movie tickets, business cards, etc... The memoir is written in the same style as her novels. She writes well, clearly, concisely and forthrightly, giving readers an understanding of how her literary life developed and why. It is not a tell all memoir. However it certainly adds to our understanding of Muriel Spark, the individual. As she stated, she was not good at picking male partners. However she did form a number of friendships that lasted for many years. She was always interested in meeting people and a keen observer of people. A lot of her novels are taken from events that occurred in her life. For example, a Miss Kay, a teacher, provided the inspiration for the character, Miss Jean Brodie. Muriel's friend at that time stated Miss Brodie was 75% Miss Kay. For Muriel Spark fans, this book is a must read.
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January 1, 2026Ms. Spark describes a childhood, upbringing, and education far more supportive of child/youth intellectual, ethical development than we enjoy here in the U.S. She also shares how her particular literary skills developed, through fascination with observing people and the world around her. Though duped at times herself, she writes about those experiences and does not attempt to protect her ego/image, or exploit others in turn. It's as though such experiences are simply more fodder. Because of that, when she does remark on her accomplishments and friendships, her account reads as matter of fact rather than boastful, especially since she clearly worked very hard for what she achieved.
An unusual circumstance in her life was a first marriage that was not only a personal mistake, but took her to a dangerous, personally oppressive situation in South Africa. When she managed (with great effort) to extricate herself and get back to London, she lived through the Blitz. This and all difficult experience, Spark uses in her literary art.
In all, this memoir make for a fascinating read.
An unusual circumstance in her life was a first marriage that was not only a personal mistake, but took her to a dangerous, personally oppressive situation in South Africa. When she managed (with great effort) to extricate herself and get back to London, she lived through the Blitz. This and all difficult experience, Spark uses in her literary art.
In all, this memoir make for a fascinating read.
March 23, 2023
I loved the first part of this autobiography so much, the way she brought the people, customs, mannerisms, and schooling in Edinburgh to life through the eyes of a child and teen, her inspiration of a teacher, and later her time in Africa and work during the war. It covers the part of her life before she became known as a novelist. it was a little more difficult parsing her days working for the Poetry Society (I'm sure I may have the name wrong) and the associated alliances and grievances chipping away at her existence at what was clearly a day job. For me, the memoir got bogged down in the weeds during that time. Still, I can see how this motivated her need for preserving everything, and the way she writes about the details of her early family life is golden. I wanted to know more about her relationship with her son.
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April 30, 2022Spark doth protest too much, even in an autobiography that pointedly eschews to substantially talk about her life as an author. It feels like Spark set out to write the most innocuous memoir possible, but just couldn't resist losing the plot and sticking the knife into Peter Stanford one more time.
The animus arises because Peter Stanford was the biographer who told tales beyond those Spark was herself willing to fictionalise in her experience-centred micro-novels. I have yet to read Stanford, but I have (since) read Spark's 'A Far Cry From Kensington' that barely throws a pocket tissue over the 'pisseur' of letters who is Stanford. Seemingly going off script, Spark sounds like she is pleading to the jury, firstly about Stanford's unauthorized pillaging of correspondence, and changing tack, of Stanford's unreliability in either remembrance or handling of documentary evidence.
Thus it is that 'CV' finishes a long way from where it starts, documenting the Victorian hangers-on and teatime routines of Spark's childhood. I enjoyed the social history, and would argue it pulls its weight in establishing Spark's beginnings as a connoisseur of conversation. Even knowing she had grown up near Victoria Falls makes sense of the tiny moment in 'Kensington' when the juxtaposition of noise and forested silence offers a memorable auditory note. The swipes at Stanford are not much more telling, but I was interested to find that in Spark's own words, she may have become her own worst enemy.
Rarely does Spark come across as defensive, and I would concur with her own sentiments that her fictions perhaps offer the best record of her life, set as they are in moments of her own experience (boarding houses, publishers, rows over Jewish heritage etc...). This characteristically slim volume is well worth a read, if only to understand where these fictions come from. However, it is in the latter that she sounds more comfortable and confidential.
The animus arises because Peter Stanford was the biographer who told tales beyond those Spark was herself willing to fictionalise in her experience-centred micro-novels. I have yet to read Stanford, but I have (since) read Spark's 'A Far Cry From Kensington' that barely throws a pocket tissue over the 'pisseur' of letters who is Stanford. Seemingly going off script, Spark sounds like she is pleading to the jury, firstly about Stanford's unauthorized pillaging of correspondence, and changing tack, of Stanford's unreliability in either remembrance or handling of documentary evidence.
Thus it is that 'CV' finishes a long way from where it starts, documenting the Victorian hangers-on and teatime routines of Spark's childhood. I enjoyed the social history, and would argue it pulls its weight in establishing Spark's beginnings as a connoisseur of conversation. Even knowing she had grown up near Victoria Falls makes sense of the tiny moment in 'Kensington' when the juxtaposition of noise and forested silence offers a memorable auditory note. The swipes at Stanford are not much more telling, but I was interested to find that in Spark's own words, she may have become her own worst enemy.
Rarely does Spark come across as defensive, and I would concur with her own sentiments that her fictions perhaps offer the best record of her life, set as they are in moments of her own experience (boarding houses, publishers, rows over Jewish heritage etc...). This characteristically slim volume is well worth a read, if only to understand where these fictions come from. However, it is in the latter that she sounds more comfortable and confidential.
May 14, 2024
I found this an excellent, very clearly written autobiography, very good on her childhood, school, family, adolescence. A strong ego and justified self-belief. Dryly humorous at times, especially regarding the alarming Marie Stopes. But in the latter stages there is rather too much about storm and strife in the publishing trade for my taste. And whilst she touches on intimate relationships, and on religious faith, there is something of the mirage here - a lack of substance as you come closer.
On the whole though there is a pleasing confidence and intelligence at work, and the encouragement to read more of her fiction. I would have given it 5 stars with less of the publishing shop talk.
On the whole though there is a pleasing confidence and intelligence at work, and the encouragement to read more of her fiction. I would have given it 5 stars with less of the publishing shop talk.
January 1, 2021
Considering that Muriel Spark regarded herself as primarily a poet, this memoir is decidedly unpoetic. It is a set of seemingly-random recollections of her childhood in Edinburgh, her marriage and short stint in what was then Southern Rhodesia, and her subsequent career from the second world war up until the publication of her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. Particularly interesting is her time working for a Foreign Office propaganda unit in 1944-45, on a radio station targetting the German military in France. Worth a read for the historical perspective.
January 12, 2026
This is Muriel Spark's autobiography of her early life up until her first published novel in 1957. There's a great deal of 'setting the record straight.' From 1940 when she 'deserted' her violent husband in Southern Rhodesia, the 22 year old Muriel made her own way in life. Getting wartime employment with the Foreign Office and then progressing to a literary career, initially concentrating on poetry and Literary Criticism. On the way she ruffled many feathers but her talent and single mindedness saw her win through in what was still predominantly a man's world.
August 13, 2020
Having just read Elizabeth Jane Howards autobiographical written about 10 years after this, this book seemed prim and functional. EJH took you almost to the bedroom door. This simply detailed memories of a loving, happy childhood, recorded her early life and referenced experiences and encounters which influenced her writing and settled a few old scores. That's it. Could have been written by a chatty headmistress rather thane of the most ironic writers of the last century
June 13, 2022
A really enjoyable observant and detailed autobiography which takes us through Edinburgh in the 1930s, and then on to being white in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa around 1940.
She came back to wartime UK and her eventful life up until the publication of her first novel in 1957 when she was 39 years old. What I enjoyed most was the background behind so many of her loved books. Of course, there are extras now on my TBR pile.
She came back to wartime UK and her eventful life up until the publication of her first novel in 1957 when she was 39 years old. What I enjoyed most was the background behind so many of her loved books. Of course, there are extras now on my TBR pile.
January 21, 2024
Witty and at times brilliantly spiteful autobiography, largely concerned with Spark’s Edinburgh childhood between the wars, her experience of World War II (partly in Africa) and her emergence as a writer in difficult and bitchy post-war London. It’s an impressionistic and discontinuous autobiography but sparkles with wit. There are some very caustic portraits of those who crossed Spark!
September 7, 2025
This comparatively short book sets out Spark’s life from her own perspective (rather than those of others,usually unauthorised). Assisted by her massive store of written material Spark describes her early struggles and eventual success, but the most interesting and charming part is the description of her early years and her family.
Clear, simple, elegant prose as in her other writings.
Clear, simple, elegant prose as in her other writings.
March 24, 2020
A delightful read, witty and interesting, full of memories and anecdotes of her childhood home at 160 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh where she was born in 1918, and her schooling at James Gillespies High School for Girls. Also encounters with famous people and her early writing life in London.
September 16, 2026
Il m'est impossble d'être objective en lisant ces pages parce que peu importe l'époque, les différentes origines et l'histoire de vie, il est indéniable que les écrivaines partagent des points communs. Je me suis sentie profondément interpellée.
January 31, 2018
Delightful rendition especially of early years in Edinburgh - so different from current times but in such a contemporary voice and view.
December 21, 2018
Starts brilliantly, ends with score-settling, name-dropping and other forms of boasting.
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May 20, 2021She lets u sit in her safety for a bit
ends extremely abruptly
It has been a bad month for reading
ends extremely abruptly
It has been a bad month for reading
March 30, 2023
Nothing but fluff. One learns almost nothing below the surface. Disappointing.
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