Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark full name Dame Muriel Sarah Spark was a literary fiction author born in Edinburgh Scotland. Spark was best known for writing works with serious themes interspersed with wit and satire. Upon graduating from high school, she went to Heriot-Watt College, where she was a student of precis writing even as she taught in a private school before becoming a personal secretary. In 1937, Muriel left England to go to Southern Rhodesia as she had met a man she wanted to marry. Seven years later in 1944, her marriage had fallen apart and after a messy divorce, she was back home in England. She got employment in the British Foreign Office at the Political Intelligence department where she worked o a variety of subtle propaganda. She had always wanted to write though she was more interested in poetry rather than prose. She started writing during this time and by the end of the War, she was the Editor of Poetry Review and General Secretary of the Poetry Society. By 1967, she had her own collection of poems published. Her first venture into prose had been when she had entered and won a short story competition by The Observer in 1951. She published her debut novel “The Comforters” in 1957.