Muriel Spark (born February 1, 1918) is a leading British novelist.

She was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at Gillespie's School for Girls. In 1938, she married, and worked in intelligence during the Second World War. She began writing seriously after the war, under her married name, beginning with poetry and literary criticism. In 1947, she became editor of the Poetry Review. In 1954, she decided to join the Catholic Church, a fact she considered crucial in her development towards becoming a novel writer. Her first novel The Comforters was published in 1957, but it was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1962) which established her reputation. After living in New York for some years, she settled in Italy in the late 1960s. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993.

The sense of a pervasive evil plays an important role in most of her books. Her approach towards her characters and their doings in most of her novels can be best described as a cold gaze that mercilessly points out failure and evil.

Novels

• The Comforters (1957)
• Robinson
• Memento Mori (1959)
• The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960)
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1962)
• The Girls of Slender Means (1963)
• The Mandelbaum Gate (1965)
• The Public Image (1968)
• The Driver's Seat (1970)
• Not to Disturb (1971)
• The Abbess of Crewe (1974)
• The Takeover (1976)
• Loitering with Intent (1981)
• Aiding and Abetting (2000)
• The Finishing School (2004)