Dame Muriel Spark was born - On this day in history

Dame Muriel Spark was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh on 1 February 1918. Spark spent her childhood in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh and began her working life as a secretary in a department store before moving to Rhodesia with her new husband Sidney Oswald Spark.

Muriel began to write seriously after World War Two (she worked in the intelligence services during the war) and her first novel The Comforters was published in 1957. She is perhaps best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, which tells the story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher. She died in Florence on 13 April 2006.

Muriel Spark received many awards during her literary career:

• 1965 - James Tait Black Memorial Prize - for The Mandelbaum Gate
• David Cohen Prize - 1997
• T S Eliot Award - 1992
• Golden Pen Award - 1998
• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire - 1993