James Bailey

Doubly honoured. Recommended by @ianrankin1.bsky.social AND alongside James’ fabulous Muriel Spark biography 🙌

@drjamesbailey.bsky.social I didn’t think I needed another biography of Muriel Spark. Turns out I was wrong. Kudos.

@drjamesbailey.bsky.social Like a golden leaf, it's time to gently drift into the 1st read of the Autumn season. On Chapter 3. Your writing is exquisite and the sensation is that of reading a novel. Love this sentence: "The word is a lid shut tight on a howl of despair.": referring to 'cope'.

Fascinating 15min audio interview with Muriel Spark from 1993, done to promote her memoir, 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑚 𝑉𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑒, discovered by scouring the endnotes of @drjamesbailey.bsky.social's excellent 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝐵𝑖𝑟𝑑: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑙 𝑆𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑘.

End of August. I read a lot of totally mediocre contemporary novels this month and a fair few absolutely cracking books. These were my favourites.

What an excellent biography. Muriel Spark could never be pinned down and the author accepts this but still manages to cover her life and novels in detail in such a way that you say "Oh yes, of course, what an amazing woman" and "Oh I thought the same about that book. Thank you". Highly recommend.

Next book.

This is a biography as quirky, brilliant and compelling as Muriel Spark herself. Huge kudos to @drjamesbailey.bsky.social Seriously considering 2027 Might be my year of reading Spark.

Holiday reading, picked up yesterday from York's new branch of Topping & Co., signed in style by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social

As a lifelong devotee of Ms Spark, it was incumbent of me to stock this fabulous volume, once my wife and I took ownership of our indie bookshop - good work James. Muriel was polite enough to reply to my eager teenaged letter back in my 'dole years'. Image pinned in bio.

I have long enjoyed writing to my literary heroes. No more so than as a romantic book-mad 20year-old, pre library employment. Muriel Spark was quick to recommend the library as a source for her further reading faves to save me 'dipping into my dole'. How I treasure this letter #libraries

On my Reading List:

Been absolutely pinned to this for the past few days. THIS is the book to introduce anyone to my Muriel Spark, the author I have so long adored. Complex, compelling, challenging, and an utter joy - impossible to pin down to a single definition. @drjamesbailey.bsky.social understands her implicitly.

@drjamesbailey.bsky.social She hasn't been able to put it down. She's even bought it out with her. She days it's brilliant.

It was such a pleasure talking to @drjamesbailey.bsky.social for this - and such a fascinating book! Unputdownable!

In Episode 818, @jackewilson.bsky.social talks to author James Bailey about his critically acclaimed biography Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark. #books #literature @princetonupress.bsky.social

Started listening to @drjamesbailey.bsky.social’s Muriel Spark autobiography Like a Cat Loves a Bird while on feeding and changing duty for the twins. I love how someone as precise with words as Spark was reduced to a microblogging style exclamatives in the face of Victoria Falls.

The perfect match day build-up here from @drjamesbailey.bsky.social - six pack of aphorisms and a sharing bag of salt and vinegar epistemology

Starting Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social.

« My experience of men is that they resent it if you are successful — and I never had the slightest intention of not being as successful as I could be. » lithub.com/an-intellect... #murielspark

I’m on the wrong continent for this, but if you’d can get to Liverpool, this sounds like a good time!

I did quite a lot of reading on holiday. (Not pictured, at least 300+ issues of various X-men comics). 4 wonderful Muriel Spark novels. 1 terrific biography of La Spark by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social 1 masterpiece adapted into another masterpiece of desperation actressing, THE HOURS!

@livunienglish.bsky.social PhD graduate Jess White will be in conversation with James Bailey about his new biography of Muriel Spark, this Wednesday 15th July at Waterstones Liverpool. Discussion starts at 6:30pm and will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. Tickets here: tinyurl.com/4f6r33dw

A BBC Book to Read This Year @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 twentieth-century British author. Out now! Order yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #MurielSpark #Biography

Redacteuren delen drie van hun huidige geheimtips en culturele obsessies. Deze week was redacteur Charlotte Remarque gegrepen door een thema: de dood. Ze tipt een biografie van Muriel Spark, het nieuwe aquarium van Artis en een tentoonstelling die een andere kant laat zien van Aat Veldhoen.

i've got my ticket. time to get yours.

Liverpool peeps, get your Spark on

I've been following the progress of this book, and am excited that it's finally out in the world. I can't make it to Liverpool in time for the event. Please go if you can.

I can't go to this but everyone in Liverpool should not miss a chance to get to know this brilliant woman, who wrote razor-sharp, diabolically funny novels and gave one of my favourite BBC interviews *ever* in 1961: youtu.be/Zz-FfQ5SZ3c?...