麻豆社

A walk through the Old Town reveals another side of the city, and of Miss Brodie.

Read by Gerda Stevenson

Set in the 1930s, Muriel Spark's novel tells the justly enduring story of Jean Brodie - a teacher at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh.

She eschews the normal curriculum in favour of lessons on the Italian Renaissance painters, on Mussolini and with stories of her own love life.

As she seeks to mould her 'set' of girls 'of an impressionable age', into the 'cr猫me de la cr猫me', and as her love life becomes complicated by affections for, and from, the art and the singing masters, she identifies two girls, one of 'instinct' and one of 'insight', in whom her ambitions will chiefly lie. But despite her own unassailable convictions, life does not always work out as planned and amongst her own set there will be those who begin to question her authority and her purpose.

Abridged by Sally Marmion.

Producer: Di Speirs

First broadcast on 麻豆社 Radio 4 in January 2013.