Preordered through my local bookstore. Should arrive in a week. Can't wait. Like a Cat Loves a Bird @drjamesbailey.bsky.social

Did Muriel Spark really adopt Patricia Highsmith's cat? Yes. James Bailey, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark

It’s a remarkable tribute to a complex unlovable loveable writer.

"'Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark,' comes at the reader slightly aslant, stealthy in its insights, lightweight in page-count, playfully acerbic, overly fond of cats." openlettersreview.com/posts/like-a...

@drjamesbailey.bsky.social's Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark is a spiky and delicious new literary portrait of the great 20th-century British author. Available June 9th! Preorder your copy here: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #Literature #Biography

My 26th stop on the indie bookstore tour was @goldenharebooks.bsky.social Edinburgh where bookseller, Polly chose Like a Cat Loves a Bird by James Bailey as a favourite recommended read #indiebooksellers #saintsandwarriors

Enjoyed this evening's non-fiction event at @serenitybookshop.bsky.social in Romiley, with fellow authors @drjamesbailey.bsky.social, @thelrm.bsky.social and @jamie-woodward.bsky.social. Signed copies of 'These Isles' now available at the shop. .

One for the Liverpool-based Sparkians.

To mark Grace Jones’s 78th birthday, please enjoy her insisting that ‘Pull Up to the Bumper’ is simply a pleasant song about the joys of manoeuvring a long, well-waxed limousine into a very tight space, and ‘shame on you’ if you think otherwise! 🚘

Hello, some book news! On 15th July, I’ll be at Waterstones Liverpool, talking all about LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK with the one and only @jesswhite.bsky.social - come along if you’re nearby! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/waterstone...

In the mail: @drjamesbailey.bsky.social on "The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark", in 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝐵𝑖𝑟𝑑, coming from @princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... Admirably comes in at a lean 240 pp.

How much effort, do you think, would it take to retrieve this 1971 Joni Mitchell billboard and have it fitted to the roof of my house? Interviewer: we meant do you have any questions about the job.

Sometimes when one writer ponders another you get gold; what they notice, what they wonder about, multiplies instead of diminishing their subject. So, readers of Muriel Spark, I strongly recommend you grab a copy of this by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social because it’s One of Those. 💙📚

Just finished re-reading Muriel Spark's The Hothouse by the East River because of @drjamesbailey.bsky.social 's biog of her. It's much funnier than I remember, more itchy and satirical. The rug-pull is done so slyly that you can see why the protagonist insists the rug is still there.

Tore through this in 5 days. James' decision to highlight various episodes from Spark's life, as opposed to straight chronology, proves ideal for wilfully slippery novelist, & snapshots of respective eras (especially enjoyed the wartime stuff) evocative. Writing fittingly elegant, playful & witty.

Love the fact that my mum has a Spotify playlist full of heartbreaking ballads by Amy Winehouse, Dionne Warwick, The Carpenters and Dusty Springfield called ‘SAD LINDA’ 💜

Took a nap. Woke up to this

Lovely thread by the talented @drjamesbailey.bsky.social - not just saying that because he cites me in his fab book 🙂

LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK has been out for a month, and it’s been a hoot and a half. Some fun photos to follow, but I had to start with the best of all - my own window display at @edinburghbookshop.bsky.social!

Recent reading. As always thanks to all the writers, publishers, @backlisted.bsky.social @judecook.bsky.social @drjamesbailey.bsky.social @grantabooks.bsky.social @stuhennigan.bsky.social @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social @omnibuspress.bsky.social @serpents-tail.bsky.social @bhousepress.bsky.social etc

Now reading 🐈‍⬛ 🐦 📕

I'll be talking about 'These Isles' at a fantastic non-fiction event at @serenitybookshop.bsky.social on Friday 22nd May 6.30pm, with authors @drjamesbailey.bsky.social, @thelrm.bsky.social and @jamie-woodward.bsky.social. Book here: www.ticketsource.com/serenity-boo...

If only all writers could be served as well as Muriel Spark has been by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social Like a Cat Loves a Bird. Clear eyed analysis, some lovely close reading, fair on the faults as well as the triumphs. There won’t be many better books on a writer this year.

What a book! An insane masterpiece.

'A thoroughly disquieting depiction of voyeurism, mania and deadly self-estrangement, on which Spark worked intensely over a few short weeks and finished from a hospital bed. “I frightened myself writing it”, she later recalled.' James Bailey on The Driver’s Seat by #MurielSpark buff.ly/JtnRonc

Once again thinking about the time Sinéad O'Connor attended an anti-Sinéad O'Connor demonstration in disguise 💛

Had a lovely chat about LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK on BBC Radio Scotland’s Arts Mix. Listen here! 🐈‍⬛ www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

An excellent Low Culture Essay @thequietus.com this month, in which @drjamesbailey.bsky.social introduces us to Muriel Spark's vicious and bleak novel The Driver's Seat, making interesting comparisons to "giallo horror at its grisliest" thequietus.com/subscriber-a...

In this month's subscriber essay, James Bailey explores her bleak masterpiece of a life's descent into an "anguished shriek of bloody despair", making comparisons with "giallo horror at its grisliest". Low Culture Essay: James Bailey on The Driver’s Seat by #MurielSpark buff.ly/XihJN5p

Lovely to meet @drjamesbailey.bsky.social too & get his paw mark on my copy 🐈‍⬛ 📕

Illuminating & funny Q&A on a lovely spring evening with @drjamesbailey.bsky.social at Hatchards, Piccadilly, nicely hosted by writer @sophiehaydock.bsky.social about James’s biography ‘Like a Cat Loves a Bird: the Nine Lives of Muriel Spark’ @hatchards.bsky.social

Reading this week was a biography of my favourite writer, 'Like a Cat Loves a Bird - the 9 Lives of Muriel Spark', by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social. It’s just out and shines. Spark, seen here clear and sharp, she remains characteristically uncontained. #MidgesBookClub

A great introduction to Muriel Spark by James Bailey, author of the just published Like a Cat Loves a Bird: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

YouTube recommended I watch this, for some reason, and for a brief moment I thought Dick & Dom were in the Criterion Closet

Someone Will Remember Us, Even In Another Time Collage made from 1960s Vogue and Women’s Realm magazines, Ladybird books, Will’s cigarette card, 1960s wallpaper, felt tip, watercolour & acrylic marker

Partick library showing their excellent taste

I’m once again thinking about how Barbra Streisand saw fit to install an entire DICKENSIAN STREET, including several fully-staffed ‘shops’, in the basement of her house, to show off her favourite antiques.

@drjamesbailey.bsky.social 📚 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Muriel Spark fans (or just fans of great writing) if you haven’t got your copy of @drjamesbailey.bsky.social ‘s latest book “Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark” you’re really missing out on a great book! I’ve been up at an obscene hour relishing the book!

Today marks 20 years since the death of the brilliant Muriel Spark. Why not pick up a copy of the new biography by James Bailey, just out - or one of the classics by the author herself? #choosebookshops #shoplocal #linlithgowhighstreet

From an extraordinary debut inspired by a real-life breakdown to a creepy masterpiece, @drjamesbailey.bsky.social provides a guide to the “uncanny, astute and witty” fiction of Muriel Spark 💙📚 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

So you wait almost two decades for a good biography of Muriel Spark and then two arrive at nearly the same time. Last year’s Electric Spark by Frances Wilson was excellent. This year’s Like a Cat Loves a Bird by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social is perhaps even better. 1/2

And the bookmark! I got the bookmark too!! I need to calm myself but Muriel Spark!! And cats!!

How exciting - “Like a Cat Loves a Bird” by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social arrived today. <puts “DO NOT DISTURB” sign on door>

What a way to end publication day! For the Guardian, I’ve written a piece on navigating the weird and wonderful word of Muriel Spark. Read it, and do give my book a read, too. LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is out right now! 🐈‍⬛ www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Saturday is cancelled! Likely Sunday too. And I was lucky enough to get the wee cat badge 🥳🤩 @portybooks.bsky.social @drjamesbailey.bsky.social

Hello - me again. To mark the publication of LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, I’ve written a little something for the Independent, all about Spark’s uncompromising devotion to her work. Here you go: archive.ph/kTnMt

I’m coveting Wallace & Gromit’s entire cheese-centric library 📚

The Millions Great Spring 2026 Book Preview is out and features six of our “enlightening,” “thought-provoking, and “stylish" titles from authors @naokan.bsky.social, @drjamesbailey.bsky.social, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, Josefa Ros Velasco, Andrew McKenzie-McHarg, and Jeremy D. Popkin:

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