Dame Muriel Spark (1918-2006)

Poet and novelist

Muriel Spark attended James Gillespie's School in Edinburgh where she was encouraged to write poetry and won a competition to mark the centenary of the death of Sir Walter Scott. In 1937 she left for what was then Southern Rhodesia where she married Sydney Oswald Spark. After her divorce she established herself as an editor, biographer and author in London, New York and Rome. Her most famous novel, 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', was adapted for the West End and made into an Oscar-winning film starring Dame Maggie Smith. Muriel Spark was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and appointed DBE in 1993. She died in Florence on 13 April 2006. Her personal archive was gifted to the National Library of Scotland.

Find out more about her family and literary career in the feature 'Our records: Muriel Spark and Scottish births in 1918' on our ScotlandsPeople website.

Birth in 1918

Muriel Sarah Camberg was born at 3 am on 1 February 1918, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, mechanical engineer, and Sarah Elizabeth Maud Uezell. The entry in the statutory register of births for the district of Morningside in the city of Edinburgh gives the place of birth as 160 Bruntsfield Place.

Birth entry for Muriel Spark (78 KB jpeg)
National Records of Scotland, 1918/685-6/91