Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh in 1918. A poet, essayist, biographer and novelist, she won much international praise, including being twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Times placed her eighth in its list of the Fifty Greatest British Writers Since 1945. She died in Tuscany in 2006. Kirsty Gunn is a novelist and short story writer. Her stories include 'Rain', which led to the 2001 film of the same name, directed by Christine Jeffs and also the 2001 ballet by the Rosas Company. Her 2012 novel The Big Music won the Book of the Year in the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Dundee.