RIP Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark is dead at the age of 88. I, like most people, know her best for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, both book and wonderful movie (and not bad TV series), but I also read some of her other novels for my first PhD comprehensive exam. Ian Rankin, in the obituary I link to below, refers to her as "Scotland's answer to Jane Austen," but it's Jane Austen with a touch of Iris Murdoch and some Graham Greene thrown if for leavening. If you only know her for Prime, try some of her other novels; you may be surprised, but you won't be disappointed.

Read Ian Rankin's obituary here.