Muriel Spark

Happily loitering about London, c. 1949, with the intent of gathering material for her writing, Fleur Talbot finds a job ?on the grubby edge of the literary world? at the very peculiar Autobiographical Association. Mad egomaniacs writing their memoirs in advance ? or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? When the association?s pompous director steals Fleur?s manuscript, fiction begins to appropriate life.

A teacher at a girl's school in Edinburgh during the 1930s comes into conflict with school authorities because of her unorthodox teaching methods.