{"product_id":"electric-spark-the-enigma-of-muriel-spark-frances-wilson-pre-order-for-publication-9th-april-2026","title":"Electric Spark : The Enigma of Muriel Spark, Frances Wilson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShe 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eElectric 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arcade Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56649260138873,"sku":null,"price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0912\/0124\/1465\/files\/spark.jpg?v=1770895483","url":"https:\/\/arcadebookshop.com\/products\/electric-spark-the-enigma-of-muriel-spark-frances-wilson-pre-order-for-publication-9th-april-2026","provider":"Arcade Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}