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Podcast: A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley
Episode: The Girls of Slender Means
Description: This week, Sally is reading The Girls of Slender Means, a novella by one of her favourite writers, Scottish novelist, poet and essayist Muriel Spark (1918 to 2006).
During the Second World War, Spark came to London to work in British intelligence. She took up residence at the Helena Club in London, a hostel in Lancaster Gate, described as “a strict club for young ladies”. In 1963, she published A Girl of Slender Means, based on her experiences at the Helena Club.
Spark was also editor of the Poetry Review from 1947 to 1948; one of the few female editors of th...