MURIEL SPARK was born and educated in Edinburgh, and spent some years in Central Africa. She returned to Britain during the war and worked in the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office. She subsequently edited two poetry magazines, and her published works include critical biographies of nineteenth-century figures, and editions of nineteenth-century letters. Her Collected Poems I and Collected Stories I were published in 1967. Since she won an Observer short-story competition in 1951 her creative writings have achieved international recognition (they are published in twenty different languages). Among many other awards she has received the Italia Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. She was awarded the O.B.E. in 1967. Mrs. Spark became a Roman Catholic in 1954. She has one son.