The Ballad of Peckham Rye

Muriel Spark author Alan Taylor editor Ronald Frame editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Birlinn General

Published:16th Nov '17

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The Ballad of Peckham Rye cover

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 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'

-- Julian Clary * 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 cr

ISBN: 9781846974281

Dimensions: 205mm x 140mm x 20mm

Weight: 301g

144 pages

Centenary Edition