Bright Spark and ode to haggis maker are added to dictionary

AUTHOR Dame Muriel Spark and haggis manufacturer John Macsween are among 213 people added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Dame Muriel is best known as the author of seminal Edinburgh-based novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Her entry in the dictionary, written by her biographer Martin Stannard, concludes with an observation that, following Dame Muriel's death, "no other writer has come close to imitating (Spark's] special narrative voice.

"In its spirit, its posh Scottish-camp, it is one of the great creations of post-war writing."

Mr Macsween built the world's first haggis manufacturing plant in Loanhead. All those added to the dictionary died in 2006.