Electric Spark

'Absolutely mesmerising. I was possessed by this book in the same way that I suspect its author was possessed by Spark. It still hasn’t put me down' SPECTATOR
'Unputdownable' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Joyously, brilliantly intelligent. In Wilson, Spark has met her true match' ANNE ENRIGHT

From one of our leading biographers and critics comes an exhilarating, landmark new look at Muriel Spark.

The word most commonly used to describe Muriel Spark is ‘puzzling’. Spark was a puzzle, and so too are her books. She dealt in word games, tricks, and ciphers; her life was composed of weird accidents, strange coincidences and spooky events. Evelyn Waugh thought she was a saint, Bernard Levin said she was a witch, and she described herself as ‘Muriel the Marvel with her X-ray eyes’. Following the clues, riddles, and instructions Spark planted for posterity in her biographies, fiction, autobiography and archives, Frances Wilson aims to crack her code.

Electric Spark explores not the celebrated Dame Muriel but the apprentice mage discovering her powers. We return to her early years when everything was piled on: divorce, madness, murder, espionage, poverty, skulduggery, blackmail, love affairs, revenge, and a major religious conversion. If this sounds like a novel by Muriel Spark it is because the experiences of the 1940s and 1950s became, alchemically reduced, the material of her art.

A 2025 HIGHLIGHT FOR: Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian, Observer and Scotsman
'A brilliant, wonderfully shrewd biography' WILLIAM BOYD
'Pitch-perfect, electrifying. Reconfirms Wilson's pre-eminence as Maestra of British biography' RACHEL HOLMES

A revolutionary book. When Spark published her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957, it was recognised as unique – something that quite simply had never been done before. Wilson’s achievement in Electric Spark is equally remarkable: an entirely original method of life writing which leaves conventional biographical techniques gasping in the dust . . . Electric Spark heaves with ghosts and furies, burglaries and blackmail. It is disquieting and absolutely mesmerising. I was possessed by this book in the same way that I suspect its author was possessed by Spark. It still hasn’t put me down -- Lisa Hilton Spectator
Wilson is not any old biographer. Her books are intense, eclectic and wildly diversionary, her intelligence rising from their pages like steam – and in Spark, the cleverest and the weirdest of them all, she may have found her ultimate subject. It’s certainly delicious the way she casts shade on some of those who came before her . . . Her achievement in Electric Spark, a brilliant book by any standards, isn’t to explain the writer (this is impossible, and she knows it), but to be somehow carried along in her slipstream. There is an uncanny closeness between biographer and subject at play here, and I find myself wondering whether Wilson didn’t feel at times as if her manuscript wasn’t a form of automatic writing -- Rachel Cooke Observer
I’ve always enjoyed Muriel Spark’s droll wit, and there is plenty on offer in Frances Wilson’s biography of the author . . . Wilson expertly dissects the author’s writing . . . A welcome reminder to return to a gloriously talented novelist -- Martin Chilton Independent
So original and engaging . . . The result of this blend of existing sources and fresh archival finds is an unputdownable and “electric” perspective on the extraordinary talent and life that together forged Spark’s fiction . . . A fabulous achievement, in more than one sense -- Isabel Berwick Financial Times
Admiring yet sceptical . . . A dynamic and dizzying weave of early struggles and future success -- Anthony Cummins Mail on Sunday
A canny biography of the early career of this strange, brilliant novelist -- Olivia Laing Guardian
Wilson shows real perception and understanding of her subject – more than can be found in any other critical book published so far . . . Atmospheric and compelling -- Robin Baird-Smith Oldie
Rich and well-researched . . . Illuminating and enjoyable -- Allan Massie Scotsman
A brilliant, wonderfully shrewd biography, expertly illuminating the most elusive and shape-shifting subject that is Muriel Spark -- WILLIAM BOYD
Treachery, lies, fantasy, God, everlastingly unsatisfactory sexual relationships . . . This miraculous narrative unravels the creative process of a brilliant novelist -- A. N. WILSON
A joyously, brilliantly intelligent work of biography. In Wilson, Spark has met her true match -- ANNE ENRIGHT
A pitch-perfect, electrifying symphony – reconfirming Wilson’s pre-eminence as Maestra of British literary biography -- RACHEL HOLMES
A fascinating new biography, which focuses on the writer’s early years in the 1940s and 1950s -- Lucy Thynne Telegraph, Best Books of 2025
The biographer of D. H. Lawrence and Thomas De Quincey returns to decode the life of the enigmatic novelist and short story writer, focusing on her turbulent 20s and 30s Guardian, The Books to Look Forward to in 2025
Dame Muriel’s life was composed of weird accidents, strange coincidences and spooky events that influenced her writing. In this biography, Wilson sets out to solve the puzzle of “Muriel the Marvel with her X-ray eyes” Financial Times, What to Read in 2025
A writer’s writer who will no doubt inspire her own cult following -- AMANDA FOREMAN
The most original voice in life-writing today -- LUCASTA MILLER

Frances Wilson is a critic, journalist and the author of six works of non-fiction, including The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay, which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography; Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas de Quincey, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize; and Burning Man: The Ascent of D.H. Lawrence, which won the Plutarch Award, was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the James Tait Black Award and was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

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