The Ballad of Peckham Rye
Written by Muriel Spark / Introduction by Ronald Frame
£9.99
37 in stock
Fiction
Reviews
The novel is wickedly funny, if cruel. I prefer it to Spark’s The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie'
Daily Mail, Best Books Ever, 2020
As I entered my teens, I developed a taste for more arch, snappy writing and discovered the joys of Muriel Spark. Wisdom and wit — ideal for an impressionable youth finding his way in the world'
Daily Mail
All of Muriel Spark's novels operate like small bombs, but this is her wittiest, most off-beat, and utterly startling'
Frances Wilson, Award-winning biographer and literary critic
About the Book
A bewitching comic masterpiece, The Ballad of Peckham Rye relates the tale of one Dougal Douglas, who is taken on by a small textile firm to ‘bring vision into the lives of the workers’. A devilishly charismatic force of nature who likes nothing better than to stir things up, he takes great delight in wreaking havoc with the locals. Nervous breakdowns, sexual misdemeanours, a heart attack and murder ensue . . . This is Spark at her most ingenious.
The publishers acknowledge investment from Creative Scotland towards the publication of this book.
Supported by the Muriel Spark Society.
The Authors
Muriel Spark
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.Ronald Frame
Ronald Frame was born in Glasgow in 1953, and educated there and at Oxford. He is the author of many works of fiction, including the Booker-longlisted The Lantern Bearers, and is an award-winning television and radio scriptwriter.Alan Taylor
Alan Taylor has contributed to numerous publications, including The TLS, The New Yorker and The Melbourne Age, and edited four acclaimed anthologies – The Assassin’s Cloak (2000), The Secret Annexe (2004), The Country Diaries (2009) and most recently, Glasgow: The Autobiography (2016).Related
-
Hardback | Pub: 08 Feb 2018£9.99Edinburgh, 1930, and the world is on the brink of change. Leading the charge is the glamorous, free-spirited Miss Jean Brodie, schoolteacher at the Marcia Blaine Academy, whose guiding principle is ‘Give me a girl at an impressionable age and...
-
Hardback | Pub: 07 Jun 2018£9.99It is time to elect a new abbess at the Convent of Crewe. There are two contenders: nuns Alexandra and Felicity. Alexandra is busy bugging the convent while Felicity calls the police when her love letters (to a young Jesuit priest) are stolen. A...
-
Hardback | Pub: 07 Jun 2018£10.39Rum, once the poor relation of the spirit world, has undergone a revival and is no longer seen just as the preferred tipple for tipsy pirates. The craft drinks movement has certainly stimulated the rum world, with high numbers of new artisan rum...
-
Hardback | Pub: 08 Feb 2018£9.991961. While on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, English teacher Barbara Vaughan becomes intent on joining her archaeologist fiance Harry, who is working on the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ignoring warnings not to cross the Mandelbaum Gate –...
