BOOK NEWS: Muriel Spark, the literary shapeshifter

Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark

By James Bailey

Princeton UP, June 2026

ISBN: 

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691290171/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.

BOOK NEWS is an online-only feature announcing new publications in modernist and contemporary literary studies. These announcements do NOT constitute an endorsement by the Journal of Modern Literature.

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.

“Bailey’s slippery Spark is chaotic, complex, often hilarious, and constantly shapeshifting. His kaleidoscopic portrait illuminates Spark’s life and work from every angle, yet—crucially—allows her the freedom she craved to confound and elude those who would try to pin her down. This is a deeply stylish, astute, and illuminating biography of a fascinating writer.”—Francesca Wade, author of Square Haunting and Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife

“Utterly charming. A book as elegant, sharp-witted, and mischievous as its subject. If you love literary biography, you’ll feel like the cat that got the cream.”—Clare Pollard, author of Delphi: A Novel

James Bailey is a writer and researcher who holds a PhD in literature and is the author of Muriel Spark’s Early Fiction.