Muriel Spark and the death of the midlist author

Nearly finished reading Muriel Spark's 1988 novel, A Far Cry from Kensington - finding it entertaining and well-written throughout, and though it feels dated, that's part of Sparks's intention, as her narrator, Mrs Hawkins (Nancy, as we later learn), is looking back from the then-present on her days as a 29-year-old war widow trying to make a go in the publishing world. The novel centers on he complete disdain for a pretentious aspiring writer, Hector (can't remember his last name), whom she insults repeatedly, thereby earning the antagonism of his, what to call her?, amour and sponsor I guess, Emma Loy. She manages to get Mrs Hawkins canned from at least 2 jobs in publishing because of her insults - and as we later learn Emma is just as disgusted w/ Hector as is the narrator, but she wants a truce. Mrs Hawkins does not - she's a fighter. In fact, that's one of the 2 strengths of the novel, her asperity and her no-nonsense narration, full of sharp observations and pointed rebukes. The other strength is its inside dope on the clubby and sometimes shady workings of the publishing industry in England in the postwar years, and maybe much later. This aspect of the novel is, however, a bit faded - and probably of more interest to English readers, who will perhaps recognize some of the models for the various characters and institutions; I don't. Spark is one of the many British writers of her time who published a steady stream of mostly minor novels, all of them entertaining and probably successful within the range, but few of them truly great - and therefore few of them read today. (Sparks's career-making novel was Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.) This publishing niche - a stream of small but profitable books - is much more British than American and for that matter much more 20th and than 21st century, as we now find the midlist all but vanished. Kensington is worth reading for sure, but doesn't really seem a book for all time - and I wonder who else in the whole world might be reading it right now aside from me.