David James 
Scholar’s Tale 

Synopsis:The intimate diary of Roy Musgrave’s amorous exploits in three continents, The Scholar’s Tale is a semi-autobiographical novel, following the later years of Roy Musgrave, a time of marital and amatory strife in which he ventures from textual scholarship into writing biography and fiction. As ever with Roy the conflict between the settled life – he marries a third time – and the lure of exotic climbs challenge him as man and hero. The story:’Man at his best is a lover – not of women, but of beauty, the idea of perfection.’ Thus Roy Musgrave, textual critic and maverick writer. But Roy’s philosophy is put to the test when he is pestered by phone calls from an unknown woman. The distressed caller emerges as Nadia Benbouzid, a Tunisian student once his mistress. On impulse he shuns his New York conference and takes flight to North Africa leaving wife and job. But winter in Tunisia is far from the paradise he has envisaged, though Nadia, feckless as ever, still beguiles him; moreover she needs him desperately and ‘would die for him.’ Returning home and now estranged from his wife, Roy takes consolation in the arms of Rose, his sister-in-law whom he invites to New York where he is researching. But can Roy accept a settled life with the woman who loves him or will he be seduced by the eidolon of Nadia?