{"product_id":"the-girls-of-slender-means","title":"The Girls Of Slender Means","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBeautifully packaged reissue of one of Muriel Spark's best loved novels, \u003ci\u003eThe Girls of Slender Means\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the May of Teck Club - a London hostel 'three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit' - the young lady residents do their best to act as if the war never happened. They practice elocution, and jostle one another over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown. But behind the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations they hide some tragically painful secrets and wounds.\u003ci\u003e'You girls are my vocation . . . I am dedicated to you in my prime'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Reading the novel as a young woman was a random gift; rereading it today is to encounter the rarest of fiction and to appreciate the early and enduring genius of Muriel Spark'  Carol Shields, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'One of Spark's most evocative novels'  Anne Taylor\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMuriel Spark was born and educated in Edinburgh. She was active in the field of creative writing since 1950, when she won a short-story writing competition in the Observer, and her many subsequent novels include \u003ci\u003eMemento Mori\u003c\/i\u003e (1959), \u003ci\u003eThe Ballad of Peckham Rye\u003c\/i\u003e (1960), \u003ci\u003eThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie \u003c\/i\u003e(1961), \u003ci\u003eThe Girls of Slender Means\u003c\/i\u003e (1963) and \u003ci\u003eAiding and Abetting\u003c\/i\u003e (2000). She also wrote plays, poems, children's books and biographies. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993, and died in 2006.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback \/ softback | 144 pages | Published June 2013\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GARDNERS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":63997117202781,"sku":"9780241963999","price":12.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/3459\/8749\/files\/view_archive_b0ac05d0-a175-40a9-99e2-e3e0181ca17f.jpg?v=1783159546","url":"https:\/\/www.thebookmark.ie\/products\/the-girls-of-slender-means","provider":"The Bookmark ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}