James Bailey in conversation

Join Blackwell’s Manchester to celebrate the publication of Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, an illuminating new biography by James Bailey. He will be in conversation with novelist Jenn Ashworth, author of The Parallel Path, exploring the life and work of one of the twentieth century’s most elusive literary figures.

Muriel Spark was a writer of remarkable range and contradiction, often described in wildly different ways: a genius, a survivor, a difficult figure, an eccentric. Her fiction reflects this shapeshifting quality, populated by unforgettable characters and darkly inventive plots, while her own life was equally complex and unpredictable.

In Like a Cat Loves a Bird, Bailey offers a fresh and compelling portrait of Spark, tracing her journey from Edinburgh to Tuscany via South Africa, London, New York and Rome. The biography captures the wit, transformation and fierce determination that defined both her career and her personality, making a powerful case for her enduring importance as a modern literary voice.

James Bailey is a Manchester-based writer and researcher, and the author of Muriel Spark’s Early Fiction. He has also co-edited British Women Short Story Writers and works closely with writers, publishers, bookshops and literature festivals to support the development of new work.