"A delicious conundrum."New Statesman

"I read this book in a delirium of delight. In Loitering with Intent, Miss Spark returns
to the early flawless form of Memento Mori and The Comforters. . .robust and
full-bodied, a wise and mature work, and a brilliantly mischievous one."
New York Times Book Review

"How wonderful to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century," Fleur Talbot rejoices.
Loitering about London in 1949, with intent to gather material for her writing, Fleur finds a job
"on the grubby edge of the literary world," as secretary to the odd Autobiographical Association.
Are they a group of mad egomaniacs, hilariously writing their memoirs in advanceor poor fools
ensnared by a blackmailer? Rich material, in any case.

But when its pompous director, Sir Quentin, steals the manuscript of Fleur's new novel, fiction
begins to appropriate life. The association's members begin to act out scenes exactly as Fleur
herself had already written them in her missing manuscript. And as they meet darkly funny,
pre-visioned fates, where does art start or reality end?

Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh and lived in Africa before settling in Great Britain. She wrote critical biographies of literary figures of the nineteenth century then turned to fiction writing after winning the Observer short-story competition in 1951. Her book, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, was adapted for stage and film.

Nadia May has been nominated as an AudioFile Golden Voice five years running and is a winner of thirteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. She is the co-founder of TheatreFirst, a theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently lives.