Muriel Spark Author

Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh in 1918. A poet, essayist, biographer and novelist, she won much international praise, including being twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Times placed her eighth in its list of the Fifty Greatest British Writers Since 1945. She died in Tuscany in 2006.

William Boyd was educated at Glasgow University and Jesus College, Oxford. His novels include A Good Man in Africa (1981), Any Human Heart (2002), Restless (2006), Ordinary Thunderstorms (2009) and Waiting for Sunrise (2012). He has worked extensively as a film and television screenwriter, often adapting his own work.