Muriel Spark
Loitering With Intent

Imprint: London, The Bodley Head, 1981
Edition: First Edition First Printing
Binding: Hardback

8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Orange boards the titles in bright gilt to the spine.A tight and well cared for copy.Edges are clean and white.There are no marks of any kind.A small 8vo.. Book Condition: New as New in a Like Jacket. Binding: Hard Cover

Stock number: 903566. ISBN: 0370309006

Bookseller's details and sales conditions: Mulberry Books

$C 27.50 (approx. $US 21.71 )

SPARK**, MURIEL:
Loitering with Intent.

Imprint: LONDON.BODLEY HEAD,1981.
Edition: UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Binding: Hardback , With Dust Jacket
Inscription: Not SIGNED.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE++/FINE++.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj. Crisp,clean,glossy laminated,grey background and blue and orange letters designed dw/dj by Michael Harvey; with minimal shelf-wear and neglibible creasing to edges - no nicks or tears present,and spine/backstrip slightly sunned/faded(?) to orange letters.Head+foot of spine/ backstrip minisculely bumped with miniscule reciprocal creases.Top edge slightly dust-soiled and lightly aged/ toned but clean and foxing-free,fore-edge cleaner with minimal spotting; contents bright,tight and clean,near pristine with no dog-ear reading creases to pages' corners.Unblemished,plain orange paper-covered boards with bright,crisap,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip with immaculate plain white endpapers with no sign of off-set foxing from dw/dj's inner flaps.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,7-221pp includes half-title+title pages,and 12 chapters. One day (30 June 1950,to be precise) Fleur Talbot was sitting in a graveyard in Kensington,writing a poem,eating a sandwich,in need of a job,and despite all that had happened feeling how wonderful it was to be a woman and an artist in the middle of the twentieth century.Ten months earlier she had found a job - and a very odd one too.She was hired by Sir Quentin Oliver, head of the Autobiographical Association (non-profit making),to assist people of very minor eminence to write accounts of their lives. The half dozen or so members of the Association all suffer from nostalgia, paranoia and a transparent craving to appear likeable,but,eccentric though they may be,they are less puzzling than Sir Quentin himself.Is he a harmless snob or a dangerous manipulator of other people's lives,a psychological Jack the Ripper? For Fleur,engaged in writing her first novel, Warrender Chase,this is,naturally,an absorbing question.Before a year has passed,during which the amazing characters who surround her give her exotic food for thought,even more fantastic questions present themselves.Who is mad and who is sane? Is truth stranger than fiction and, harder to answer,which is which? 'I do dearly love a turn of events,' Fleur confesses at one point; and the slightly sinister,wildly funny story she tells provides rich chances for her,and us,to relish the taste of the unexpected. 'Loitering with Intent' returns to the London scene of some of Muriel Spark's earlier triumphs.For sheer inventiveness and entertainment it must rank as one of her very best books.See also rja2110, rja2113 and rja2114 inclusive ( another copy.) for other Muriel Spark titles. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. That offer available UK only,unless indicated otherwise. ** This item offered P+p included. Available UK only. ** ** N.B. US customers please be aware: US Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to USA can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

Stock number: rja2115. ISBN: 0370309006.

Bookseller's details and sales conditions: R. J. A. PAXTON-DENNY

£ 38.00 (approx. $US 49.45 )