She was buried near her Tuscan home, not in the biodegradable wooden coffin she had requested but in a solid, zinc-lined coffin in a concrete niche. A simple slab bears the word Poeta
qtd. in
Stannard, Martin. Muriel Spark. The Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2009.
533
and...
Family and Intimate relationships
Muriel Spark
MS
had first known Penelope Jardine
, painter and sculptor, when Jardine worked as her secretary.
Moir, Jan. “Dame plays detective”. Edmonton Journal, 28 Jan. 2000, p. E13.
E13
Rizzo, Alessandra. British Novelist Muriel Spark Dies at 88. 15 Apr. 2006, http://www.comcast.net/entertainment/index.jsp?cat=ENTERTAINMENT&fn=/2006/04/15/368502.html&cvqh=itn_novelist.
Stannard, Martin. Muriel Spark. The Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2009.
403
She said of this friendship (which aroused some gossip): We're not lesbians, you know.
qtd. in
Lawson, Mark. “Dame Muriel Spark: Novelist who found her prime away from Miss Jean Brodie”. Guardian Unlimited, 17 Apr. 2006.
When Spark wrote...
Material Conditions of Writing
Christine Brooke-Rose
The revision of this novel was done partly at the home of Muriel Spark
and Penelope Jardine
in Tuscany. Spark, who had just met Brooke-Rose again after years out of touch, helped her search...
Residence
Muriel Spark
MS
was spending a lot of time with her friend Penelope Jardine
in her half-converted thirteenth-century house in the Arezzo hills in Tuscany, with a deconsecrated church (potentially Jardine's studio) attached.
Stannard, Martin. Muriel Spark. The Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2009.
