{"podcast":{"title":"Slightly Foxed","slug":"slightly-foxed-725618","podcast_index_feed_id":725618,"rss_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4974324.rss","website_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4974324","image_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/33763391.jpg","author":"Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly","episode_count":60,"summary":"The independent-minded book review magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine. Come behind the scenes with the staff of Slightly Foxed to learn what makes this unusual literary magazine tick, meet some of its varied friends and contributors, and hear their personal recommendations for favourite and often forgotten books that have helped, haunted, informed or entertained them. For more information about Slightly Foxed visit: foxedquarterly.com","last_synced_at":"2026-07-15T18:20:50.929915+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618"},"episode":{"title":"54: The Many Lives of Muriel Spark","slug":"54-the-many-lives-of-muriel-spark","published_at":"2025-07-15T09:45:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618/54-the-many-lives-of-muriel-spark","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618","url":"https://audioboom.com/posts/8746228","audio_url":"https://audioboom.com/posts/8746228.mp3?modified=1752157364&sid=4974324&source=rss","summary":"It’s been said that Muriel Spark’s career was not so much a life as a plot, and she did indeed repeatedly reinvent herself, closing one chapter of her life and opening another, regardless of how many friends and business associates she abandoned along the way. This month the Slightly Foxed team were joined by Muriel Spark’s biographer Martin Stannard, and Spark enthusiast Emily Rhodes of Emily’s Walking Book Club , to discuss the work of this highly original and somewhat forgotten writer and learn how Muriel first invited Martin to write her biography and then did her best to prevent it seeing the light of day. Born in 1918, Muriel grew up in a working class family in Edinburgh – the setting for her most famous novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie , which was based on a charismatic teacher at her own school. At the age of 19 she closed that chapter of her life by marrying an older maths teacher, Sydney Oswald Spark, known (appropriately) thereafter as SOS, and going with him to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where their son Robin was born. Unfortunately it soon became obvious that Sydney had severe psychiatric problems and in 1943 Muriel left husband and son and returned to London where she began her career as a novelist. Several times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and much admired by Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene, Muriel produced 22 novels, most of them drawing on events in her own life. Everyone at the Slightly Foxed table had their favourites, including The Girls of Slender Means , A Far Cry from Kensington , Loitering with Intent , and Memento Mori , a clear eyed and also very funny look at old age. Everyone agreed on the brilliance of her writing with its dark humour, preoccupation with the supernatural and with the presence of evil in unlikely places. Her l…","meta_description":"It’s been said that Muriel Spark’s career was not so much a life as a plot, and she did indeed repeatedly reinvent herself, closing one chapter of her lif…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3478,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/slightly-foxed-725618/episodes/54-the-many-lives-of-muriel-spark/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618/54-the-many-lives-of-muriel-spark.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}