IT may look like the holiday snap any self-respecting photographer would vehemently deny taking.

A photo of four friends relaxing after a lunch party appears ruined by the fact they have all been beheaded by the photographer.

But this photograph is being featured in a treasure trove of previously undiscovered work by the late Dame Muriel Spark.

Along with the photo, nine short pieces written by Dame Muriel have been compiled for the collection by the writer's life-long friend Penelope Jardine - with whom she lived in Tuscany for almost 30 years - and Professor Dan Gunn, from the American University of Paris.

The collection, called Walking On Air, is to be unveiled in Edinburgh on November 16th when Prof Gunn gives a lecture on Dame Muriel's work at the National Library of Scotland.

It features an unpublished handwritten note on dream interpretation, an unpublished account of a dream, two poems, an essay on 15th-century Tuscan artist Piero della Francesca and another on hotels. There is also an unpublished note on translation, one short story and several diary entries.

Gail Wylie, president of the Muriel Spark Society, said: "It's very exciting to think of her writing in such a lively way towards the end of her life as she did at the beginning."

Prof Gunn worked with Dame Muriel on projects within the American University of Paris.

Following her death in April 2006 at the age of 88, Prof Gunn went to stay with Ms Jardine in Tuscany, where the two compiled the nine pieces to be included in the collection.

In Walking On Air's bibliographical notes, Ms Jardine spoke about the photograph her friend took almost 20 years before her death, which featured herself, British art connoisseur Sir Harold Acton, the then-director of the British Institute in Florence, Frank Woodhouse and Francis Russell of Christie's auction house.

She said: "This photograph was taken in 1988 after a very fine lunch party at La Pietra, Harold Acton's Florentine villa. Muriel rarely took a photograph, but, like everything else she did, it was original."

• Dame Muriel Spark Society [3]
• Dame Muriel Spark writer [4]