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Ali Smith remembers Muriel Spark in what would have been her centenary year.

Muriel Spark was one of the greatest fiction writers of the 20th Century – named no. 8 in The Times’ list of the greatest British writers since 1945. Her novels include Memento Mori, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Mandelbaum Gate and A Far Cry from Kensington. Though she published an autobiography – Curriculum Vitae – in 1992, she remained an enigma even to some who thought they knew her well. In Spark’s centenary year, in a talk chaired by Robin Baird-Smith, who was her publisher for ten years, Ali Smith reflects on a writer of genius.

 

Recorded on: April 26, 2018
Recorded at: National Portrait Gallery