E D I T O R I A L . 2

8th September 2000

In Time Out a couple of weeks ago, Matt Sanderson started his Books feature thus:

'Muriel Spark may be 82 but she could still show any of the so-called New Puritans (Alex Garland, Matt Thorne, Nicholas Blincoe et al) a thing or three.'

Obviously, as a contributor to the New Puritan anthology, I come in here under the 'et al' category.

To begin by nit-picking: why 'so-called'? The anthology exists, has the title it has, includes the writers it includes. As far as that goes, we are 'New Puritans'.

We may not be either new enough, or puritanical enough, for Matt Sanderson's tastes. But he wouldn't say 'the so-called signatories of Dogme '95'.

To continue with conciliation: I have no problem admitting that Muriel Spark could teach me 'a thing or three'.

Muriel Spark is probably the most important living British novelist. She is arguably the most important English-language novelist.

I was lucky enough to meet Dame Muriel (have to say 'Dame') earlier this week. She was very interested to hear about the New Puritan manifesto. Her main line of inquiry was whether or not she would qualify as a Puritan herself. (I had to break the news that, on ground of chronological play alone, she was ineligible.)

At one point, Muriel Spark said, 'I'm always interested in new ways of telling stories.'

When I asked her if she was sure there were new ways, she answered, very definitely and very quickly, 'Oh, yes.'