I should know better

Muriel Spark has died - a famous Scot who injected a timely jolt of acid into the anodyne English novel of the time.

I am well acquainted with her novels, but never met her personally. Not for want of trying. Every year a student committee I was part of would invite her to come as a guest speaker, and her refusals were invariably entertaining. I remember that she once replied that -
a) she was a poor public speaker
and
b) her legs weren`t nearly good enough to take the audience`s mind off (a).

She brought a sharp focus to the novel form that is hard to find today.

She will be sadly missed.