'The prime of Miss Jean Brodie' by Muriel Spark. The cover of the book pictured shows Maggie Smith as Miss Brodie, from the 1969 film adaptation.
'Miss Brodie stood in her brown dress like a gladiator with raised arm and eyes flashing like a sword. "Hail Caesar!" she cried again, turning radiantly to the window light, as if Caesar sat there. "Who opened the window." said Miss Brodie dropping her arm.
'Nobody answered.
' "Whoever has opened the window has opened it too wide," said Miss Brodie. "Six inches is perfectly adequate. More is vulgar. One should have an innate sense of these things. We ought to be doing history at the moment according to the time-table. Get out your history books and prop them up in your hands. I shall tell you a little more about Italy. I met a young poet by a fountain." '
An ABC of Scotland
Jean Brodie was just one of the 'B' topics in our alphabetical exhibition celebrating some of the outstanding achievements by Scotland and Scots.
'Wha's like us?' ran from 13 December 2013 to 18 May 2014.