Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark by Frances Wilson *****

Reading dates: 18 July 2025 – 15 March 2026

Electric Spark is so much more than a biography of Muriel Spark. It is structured, narrated and written with a flair than can only be Sparkian. It looks at coincidences, patterns and their beauties. I read it as my breakfast book, in short bursts with my second coffee, savouring each paragraph and allowing it to start my day inspired.

I love Spark’s life story. I enjoyed Martin Stannard’s biography too, but that was more pedestrian, more academic, without the understanding of the person Frances Wilson has. Although I also seem to have given Stannard 5 stars back in 2012 … And The Driver’s Seat (Spark’s favourite novel of hers and ‘a wicked little book’ as referred to by the impeccable artist and writer Sharon Kivland) only 4. It is a 5.

13 April 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of her death. I was already in Scotland, but I did not know her. In those days, sleep was elusive and I used to doze off listening to Book of the Week. Shortly after her death, they read The Finishing School, and I remember thinking, half-dreaming, what a curious novel it was. I ended up giving it 3 stars when I read it; I am too harsh a critic.

I don’t like biographies, as a genre, and from reading this book, I don’t think Spark did either, even though she was a biographer herself (of the Brontë sisters and Mary Shelley among others). Yet, Wilson problematises what she is doing so beautifully, I may need to add it to the list of things I need top revise. This year, another biography will be published: Like a Cat Likes a Bird: the Nine Lives of Muriel Spark by James Bailey. Needless to say, I will get it, will read it, will write about it. But I am already sure it will not compete with Wilson’t masterful account.