Loitering with Intent cover art

Loitering with Intent

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

€0.00/month for the first 3 months
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Loitering with Intent

By: Muriel Spark
Narrated by: Nadia May
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 "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 advance, or 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?

©1981 Copyright Administration, Ltd. (P)2002 Blackstone Audiobooks Women Feel-Good Witty Thought-Provoking

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Bachelors cover art
The Complete Short Stories cover art
A Mortal Bane cover art
Restoration cover art
The Trick of It cover art
The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest cover art
Cousin Bette cover art
The Reapers cover art
The Scribe of Siena cover art
Wives and Daughters cover art
The Woman in White cover art
The Magnolia Palace cover art
The Ivy Tree cover art
Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon cover art
Murder in the Crypt cover art
Mask of Duplicity cover art

Critic reviews

"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." (The New York Times Book Review)

All stars
Most relevant  
It was deliciously waspish. I enjoyed it particularly listening rather than reading. Well structured plot. Slightly dated.

Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I saw a clip of Muriel Spark on the BBC archive. She looked so interesting so I searched out a book.

The narration was perfect and I loved the autobiographical feel to the novel.

Autobiographical Feel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book, I was kept enthralled by the racy goings on in the publishing world

A Jolly Entertaining Tale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully read and thoroughly engaging. It reminded me a little of Iris Murdoch. It would have been interesting to listen to her working of this witty and funny story.

Spark by name, Sparky by nature

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved every moment. The narrator presented the story and character to perfection. And of course, Ms Spark is genius.

Exceptional

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved this story. Engaged my attention right through. Like a funny and rather idiosyncratic who dunnit. Very enjoyable.

Witty and clever

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was a very welcome free book from Audible. A great listen, very well read, some places that made me laugh out loud and I will continue on to my fifth Muriel Spark book before too long. She and Nevil Shute are two authors I have never read, having only discovered them through Audible. Now I know what the fuss was about.

Very entertaining, excellently read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The writing consists of incredibly succinct prose, plus an intriguing story line. The characters are very well drawn.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
So enjoyed this book. A treat. feeling like I know the characters and times.

a super read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very witty and wonderfully short.



Just perfect if you’re stuck in an airport with a delayed flight.

They also had sex in 1950

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews