Victoria Falls guide from March 1942.
Africa itself offered Muriel Spark a refuge of sorts from the difficulties of her life there, and a visit to the Zambesi River proved inspirational.
Spark later reflected: 'The experience of the Victoria Falls gave me courage to endure the difficult years to come. The falls became to me a symbol of spiritual strength …
'They are one of those works of nature that cannot be distinguished from a sublime work of art'.
She would transform this sublimity into poetry and into the short story, 'The Seraph and the Zambesi', which would eventually alter her fortunes.
In Spark’s poem 'The Victoria Falls', the sound of the water builds to 'a thunder', echoing the locals' description of the falls as 'Mosi-oa-Tuny' — 'the smoke that thunders'.