The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

One of the BBC''s ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World''

''A sublimely funny book ... it is a book to be read by all ... unforgettable and universal'' Candia McWilliam

Romantic, heroic, comic and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, unconventional ideas and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy - ''the cr- de la cr-'' - who become the Brodie ''set'', introduced to a privileged world of adult games that they will never forget. Muriel Spark''s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was adapted into a successful stage play, and later a film directed by Ronald Neame and starring Maggie Smith.