Appointment in Arezzo: A friendship with Muriel Spark

(Paperback)

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This book is an intimate, fond, and funny memoir of one of the greatest novelists of the last century. A colourful, personal, anecdotal, indiscrete, and admiring memoir that charts the course of Muriel Spark's life revealing her as she really was. Once, she commented sitting over a glass of chianti at the kitchen table, that she was upset that the academic whom she had appointed her official biographer did not appear to think that she had ever cracked a joke in her life. Alan Taylor here sets the record straight about this and many other things.

With sources ranging from notebooks kept from his very first encounter with Muriel and the hundreds of letters they exchanged over the years, this is an invaluable portrait of one of Edinburgh's premiere novelists. The book will be published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Muriel's birth in 2018.

Reviews

'So true in its friendship to and its critique of Spark and her work, and at the same time such a good read, that I found myself still reading it walking along streets and waiting for Tube trains. It celebrates Sparks work with real understanding while it celebrates their friendship with candour and warmth. I loved it'

-- Ali Smith * Financial Times, Best Books of 2017 *

'Controversies are not shied away from but it is her vivacity, generosity and quixotic character that are emphasized. Taylor writes with affection and humour Published to mark the centenary of her birth in 1918, Taylors memoir should encourage (re)discovery of the challenges, joys and humour in reading Sparks words'

-- Jill Burton * The Australian *

'Muriel Spark, now more than ever looks like the standout British novelist of the later 20th century. Sparks novels 22 in all are the product of a ruthlessly confident, even clairvoyant sensibility, and fuse an impossible range of tones and strengths'

-- Leo Robson * The New Statesman *

'This recollection of a friendship with one of Edinburgh's most beloved literary icons has real heart and style'

-- Meghan Delahunt, Chair of Judging Panel, Saltire Society Non-fiction Book of the Year (shortlisted)

'an insightful, fond and gossipy read, with a Sparkian title to boot'

-- Kirsty Wark * The Observer *

'Sharply observant, Taylor's cautious, respectful, sincere and measured prose sustains whats at the core of the whole book: affection. A sense of liking runs through it. And from the moment of their first meeting, Spark seems to have recognised the affection, critical sensibility and genuineness of Taylor's respect...it has the method, the sensitivity to moments, the delicacy and strength, the senses of both vulnerability and durability, of one of Sparks favourites, ProustsIn Search of Lost Time'

-- Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University * The National *

'a highly personal and often amusing new book about [Spark and Taylor's] friendship'

-- Marianne Taylor * Herald Magazine *

'an affectionate but clear-sighted memoirTaylor creates a mosaic portrait of Spark, that is alert and alive almost novelistically nuanced. His introductory chapter would serve a casual reader or student ideally as an introduction to Spark and her work'

-- Brian Morton * Herald *

'Anyone who loves Muriel Sparks novels will enjoy this intelligent and affectionate book. Anyone who reads it, though ignorant of the novels, will surely want to read them'

-- Allan Massie * Scotsman *

Author Bio

Alan Taylor has contributed to numerous publications, including The TLS, The New Yorker and The Melbourne Age, and edited four acclaimed anthologies The Assassins Cloak (2000), The Secret Annexe (2004), The Country Diaries (2009) and most recently, Glasgow: TheAutobiography (2016).