Like a Cat Loves a Bird

The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark

James Bailey

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9780691290195
  9780691290171
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691293738
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

“A deeply stylish, astute, and illuminating portrait of a fascinating writer.”—Francesca Wade, author of Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife

A spiky and delicious new literary portrait of the great twentieth-century British author of beloved novels such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Girls of Slender Means

“She was, if you believe what you read in the papers: a genius, a survivor, a bad mother, a fickle friend, a closeted lesbian, a tyrant, a loner, an eccentric, a recluse, a gossip, and an arch-manipulator. She would politely encourage you not to believe what you read in the papers.”—from Like a Cat Loves a Bird

Muriel Spark (1918–2006) was one of literature’s great shapeshifters. That mercurial quality is found in her strange, brilliant, cruel novels—with their plots featuring a cast of elderly characters receiving telephone calls from Death, the devil going clubbing in Peckham, and a fascist schoolmistress leading her coterie of girls astray—but it is also true of her as a person. As sly, nimble, and elegant as Spark’s own work, Like a Cat Loves a Bird offers a thrilling new perspective on a remarkable life and career that spanned much of the twentieth century.

From Spark’s childhood in Edinburgh to her final years in Tuscany—via South Africa, London, New York, and Rome—James Bailey traces a light-footed journey around the world and through the novelist’s strange and magnificent books. The result is an irresistible story of transformation, wit, and fierce determination—and a passionate case for this vital modern artist.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Epigraphs
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue: The Sitter
• 1. The Onlooker
• 2. The Girl at an Impressionable Age
• 3. The Wife
• 4. The Good Liar
• 5. The Girl of Slender Means
• 6. The Convert
• 7. The Experimentalist
• 8. The Witness
• 9. The Hothouse Flower
• 10. The Public Image
• 11. The Companion
• 12. The Intellectual Monster
• 13. The Woman on the Hill
• Epilogue: The Revenant
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Acknowledgements
• Index