In a few words
Unabridged recording by Juliet Stevenson – illuminating the writing of one of the twentieth century’s foremost literary talents for a new listening audience
Muriel Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards, decisive as a smashed glass is decisive.
John Updike
New YorkerHard to believe but Miriam is just as good as, if not better than, Maggie
Sue Arnold On The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie
The GuardianMore about
the book
The Girls of Slender Means is the third Muriel Spark audio release of 2012, following The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Collected Short Stories.
It is 1945; a time of cultural and political change, and also one of slender means. Spark’s evocative and sharply drawn novel focuses on a group of women living together in a hostel in Kensington who face new challenges in uncertain times.
The novel is at once dramatic and character-based, and shows Muriel Spark at the height of her literary powers.
Juliet Stevenson reads with her customary wit and intelligence.
Muriel Spark
View profileMuriel Spark, DBE, C.Litt., was born in Edinburgh in 1918 and educated in Scotland. A poet and novelist, she also wrote children’s books, radio plays, a comedy Doctors of Philosophy, (first performed in London in 1962 and published 1963) and biographies of nineteenth-century literary figures, including Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë.
For her long career of literary achievement, which began in 1951, Muriel Spark garnered international praise and many awards, which include the first Enlightenment Award and the Italia Prize for dramatic radio. She died in 2006.
