The Resume

(February 1, 1918-April 13, 2006)
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Birth name was Muriel Camberg
Wrote the novels 'Memento Mori' (1959), 'The Ballad of Peckham Rye' (1960), 'The Bachelors' (1960), 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1961), 'The Girls of Slender Means' (1963), 'The Public Image' (1968), 'The Driver's Seat' (1970), 'The Takeover' (1976), 'Loitering with Intent' (1981), 'A Far Cry from Kensington' (1988), 'Symposium' (1990), Aiding and Abetting' (2004) and 'The Finishing School' (2006)
Named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1993)

Why she might be annoying:

She suffered an emotional breakdown, brought on partly by abusing diet pills (1954).
She became convinced T.S. Eliot was sending her secret messages in his poems.
She left Britain for exile in America and Italy, claiming she had to get away from old friends who were alienated by her sudden success (1963).
She became estranged from her son, partly because he embraced Judaism at the same time that she converted to Catholicism.
She said of her son, 'He's never done anything for me, except for being one big bore.'

Why she might not be annoying:

At 14, she won a poetry competition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Sir Walter Scott.
She said of her violent, manic-depressive husband, 'He became a borderline case, and I didn't like what I found on either side of the border.'
She produced propaganda for British intelligence during World War II.
She was fired as editor of 'Poetry Review' for championing modernist poetry and ending the practice of accepting payments from authors (1949).
Her novels are alternately bleak and witty, prompting a critic to call her a 'profoundly serious comic writer.'
Asked what literary movement she fit into, she replied, 'Sometimes one makes one's own category, you know.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Born Half-Jewish
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 33]
• Catholics who are Partially Jewish
• Dames
• Diseased Initials
• I Abused Amphetamines
• I Converted to Catholicism
• I Died in 2006 (Ranked: 88)
• I was Estranged From My Child
• I Write Bildungsroman
• Influenced by Hannah Arendt
• Lesbians
• Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century [1998] (Ranked: 76)
• NPR's 100 Best Literary Characters of the 20th Century [Authors - 2002] (Ranked: 48)
• Profiles 30251-30500 (Ranked: 30385)
• Served in World War II
• Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels [Authors]

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 53 Votes: 64.15% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 64.71% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2010, Out of 21 Votes: 57.14% Annoying