Muriel Spark 100

2018 marks the centenary of the birth of the iconic writer Muriel Spark. Best-known as the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Dame Muriel was a poet, writer of fiction, criticism and literary biography, and was at the top of her profession, internationally, for more than half a century.  In 2008, The Times named Spark as No. 8 in its list of ‘the 50 greatest British writers since 1945’.

As part of the year-long celebration, for this week’s blog post we’re taking a look at some of her notable works.  You can also find out more about Muriel herself, the authors she inspired and programmes commissioned for the Muriel Spark season using the BBC links below:

10 things you didn’t know about Muriel Spark by Alan Taylor (BBC)

Muriel provides the spark to recommend great writers (BBC)

Muriel Spark 100 Programming (BBC)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Romantic, heroic, comic and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, unconventional ideas and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy - 'the crème de la crème' - who become the Brodie 'set', introduced to a privileged world of adult games that they will never forget..

Memento Mori - In late 1950s London, an insinuating voice on the telephone informs a group of elderly friends, "Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone calls, and in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed.

The Girls of Slender Means - In the ‘May of Teck’ Club the young lady residents do their best to act as if the war never happened. They practice elocution, and jostle one another over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown. But behind the girls' giddy literary and amorous journeys they hide some tragically painful secrets and wounds.

2018 yw canmlwyddiant geni’r awdur eiconig Muriel Spark. Fe’i hadnabyddir orau fel awdur The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, ond roedd y Fonesig Muriel yn fardd, yn awdur ffuglen, beirniadaeth a bywgraffiad llenyddol ac roedd ar frig ei phroffesiwn, yn rhyngwladol, am dros hanner canrif.  Yn 2008, gosododd y Times Spark ar rif. 8 yn ei rhestr o’r ‘50 awdur Prydeinig gorau ers 1945’.

Fel rhan o’r dathliad trwy’r flwyddyn, cawn edrych yn y blog yr wythnos yma ar rai o’i gweithiau mwyaf nodedig.  Gallwch hefyd ddysgu mwy am Muriel ei hun, yr awduron a ysbrydolwyd ganddi a’r rhaglen a gomisiynwyd ar gyfer tymor Muriel Spark gan ddefnyddio dolenni’r BBC isod:

10 o bethau na wyddoch chiam Muriel Spark gan Alan Taylor (BBC)

Muriel yn tanio iysbrydoli i awduron arbennig (BBC)

Rhaglenni 100 Muriel Spark (BBC)

http://bbc.in/2DNbTVT

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Mae’r ysgolfeistres ramantus, arwrol, comig a thrasig, ac anghonfensiynol, Jean Brodie, wedi dod yn ffigwr eiconig mewn ffuglen ar ôl y rhyfel .  Mae ei harddwch, ei syniadau anghonfensiynol a’i swyn ystrywgar yn dylanwadu’n beryglus ar ei merched yn y Marcia Blaine Academy - y ‘crème de la crème' - sy’n dod yn rhan o ‘set’ Brodie, ac yn cael eu cyflwyno i fyd breintiedig gemau oedolion na fyddan nhw byth yn anghofio.

Memento Mori - Yn Llundain yr 1950au, mae llais ensyniol ar y ffôn yn dweud wrth grŵp o hen ffrindiau, "Cofiwch, rhaid i chi farw."   Maen nhw’n cael eu cynhyrfu’n fawr gan y galwadau ffôn yma sy’n ymddangos yn oruwchnaturiol, ac yn y dryswch sy’n dilyn daw nifer o hen gyfrinachau i’r wyneb. O dan arwyneb eu bywydau a fu unwaith mor barchus, mae blacmel a godineb yn awr i’w gweld.

The Girls of Slender Means - Yng Nghlwb ‘May of Teck’ mae’r menywod ifanc sy’n byw yno’n ceisio’u gorau i ymddwyn fel pe na bai’r rhyfel erioed wedi digwydd. Maen nhw’n ymarfer llefareg, ac am y gorau dros gariadon a ffrog Schiaparelli unigol. Ond, y tu ôl i siwrnai lenyddol a serchus gwirion y merched maen nhw’n cuddio cyfrinachau a briwiau trasig o boenus.