Appointment in Arezzo

This book is an intimate, fond and funny memoir of one of the greatest novelists of the last century. This colourful, personal, anecdotal, indiscreet and admiring memoir 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 was published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Muriel's birth in 2018.



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



'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 Spark’s work with real understanding while it celebrates their friendship with candour and warmth. I loved it'



'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, Taylor’s memoir should encourage (re)discovery of the challenges, joys and humour in reading Spark’s words'



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



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



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



'Sharply observant, Taylor's cautious, respectful, sincere and measured prose sustains what’s 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 Spark’s favourites, Proust’s In Search of Lost Time'



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



'an affectionate but clear-sighted memoir…Taylor 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…'



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