James Bailey

Sinéad O'Connor in a black wig, at an anti-Sinéad O'Connor demonstration

Sinéad O'Connor in a black wig, at an anti-Sinéad O'Connor demonstration

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

Let me know what you think! And if you like it, there might be a new book on the way… 🐈‍⬛

(I feel she’d incorporate the vocoder)

I would actually

Book tour dates for Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark 16 APRIL Blackwell's, Manchester with Jenn Ashworth 21 APRIL Hatchards Piccadilly, London with Sophie Haydock 23 APRIL Topping & Co Booksellers, Edinburgh 27 APRIL Blackwells, Oxford with Francesca Wade 12 MAY Urmsion Bookshop

I’m taking my book on a little tour!

Come and see me talk all things LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK. There'll be gossip, jokes and cat anecdotes. And once I'm through with those I'll start talking about the book.

There’s a link for tickets in my bio. Hope to see you! 🐈‍⬛

A still from Keeping Up Appearances, in which Hyacinth Bucket is delivering the line “this is not a cornflake establishment”

Tori Amos in 1994:

Will settle for a miniseries about the photoshoot of her frolicking with a plastic dolphin

Wuthering Bites

(Talent)

Very unfair that Sam Mendes can make 4 films, told from the perspective of each member of the Beatles, and yet I can’t make just one film about the time Kate Bush did a photoshoot with a stuffed crocodile in a car park 😤

James Bailey for Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark at Topping & Company Booksellers of Edinburgh

LIKE A CAT LOVES
A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is coming to Edinburgh! On 23rd April, I'll be at the Topping & Co bookshop for a special event.

Tickets available here: www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinb...

Please come if you're nearby, and let your Spark-loving pals know about it, too 🐈‍⬛

Very excited for this one.

I so appreciate that, thank you!

We don't review nonfiction ourselves, but some of our reviewers who do so elsewhere might want to check out this book? (I look forward to reading it myself in a non-reviewer capacity.)

@princetonupress.bsky.social

A copy of my book, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark

Hello - just a quick message to US writers: early copies of my book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, will be available soon! Please message me if you’re interested in reading it, and I’ll let my publisher know 🐈‍⬛

A still from Keeping Up Appearances, in which Hyacinth Bucket is delivering the line “this is not a cornflake establishment”

Tori Amos in 1994:

LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: James Bailey in conversation with Jenn Ashworth Join us to celebrate the publication of James Bailey's illuminating biography of Muriel Spark

And here are the details of my Manchester book launch, for anyone who fancies it

🐈‍⬛💘🐦‍⬛

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/like-a-cat...

The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark with James Bailey - Hatchards, Piccadilly James Bailey will discuss his new book Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark in conversation with Sophie Haydock.

Some news! There’ll be a London launch for LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK⚡️

On 21 April, I’ll be at @hatchards.bsky.social with @sophiehaydock.bsky.social to talk all things Spark. Please come if you can! Tell a friend!

Tickets here! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-nine-l...

I like how, when Madonna delivers the line “I wanna make love on a train…” in 'Justify My Love', she adds “…cross-country”. Lest anyone suspect that her lover could only last the length of the 0.8-mile trip from Stourbridge Town to Stourbridge Junction.

Like a Cat Loves a Bird “A deeply stylish, astute, and illuminating portrait of a fascinating writer.”—Francesca Wade, author of Gertrude Stein: An AfterlifeA spiky and delicious new literary portrait of the great twentieth-...

There is! Out with @princetonupress.bsky.social in June!

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark By James Bailey "Spark's own story," writes Bailey, "is every bit as strange, slippery, and rife with contradictions as the ones she wrote." True enough - and pinning down one of literature's greatest shapeshifters is a challenge for any biographer.

And today I’m in The Scotsman’s list of ‘cracking page-turners’ for 2026.

(Incidentally, I once met a drag queen called Paige Turner. Hope she’s doing well, wherever she is these days ✨)

Aaaah, thank you!! 🐈‍⬛💘🐦‍⬛

Merry Christmas, Louisa! x

Ah, thanks!

Happy holidays to you too!

Just realised I’m not, in fact, sandwiched between Liza and Cher. I follow them up… like a strange dessert at the end of a very camp dinner. 🍮

Text from BBC article about 2026 must-reads: ‘Expect nuggets from her younger days growing up in the shadow of her famous mum, Judy Garland, before she reveals all on her meteoric rise to fame, struggles with addiction, high-profile marriages and friendships, and heartbreaking miscarriages. It's going to be one hell of a ride. Other memoirs out next year worth checking out are Starchild: My Life Under the Night Sky by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock (Ebury), My Truth, My Story: Part 2 from Cher (HarperCollins), Gisele Pelicot - A Hymn to Life: Shame has to Change Sides (Vintage), Lena Dunham's Fame Sick (Fourth Estate) and James Bailey's biography, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark (Sceptre).’

Well here’s something: the BBC has included LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK in a round-up of the must-reads of 2026. I’m sandwiched between Liza Minnelli and Cher - a big camp old Merry Christmas to me! ✨

Yeats has made me wanna write songs but I ain't ready yet. I haven't fallen in love as many times as him, the silly old bugger. Always asking a woman to marry him and not getting the message when she said no and then asking her daughter, which makes you know why the mother said no so many times. He's a freak. He looks a bit like a walrus. He's quite off-putting. But his poems are paintings. My favorite is "No Second Troy," although I get fed up with people rhyming desire with either fire or pyre. There's got to be some other option.

Rereading Sinéad O'Connor’s autobiography - here she is, as a teenager, giving Yeats a bit of a kicking

YouTube video by WNYT NewsChannel 13 Sinead O'Connor in disguise at SPAC: 1990

Because she refused to have the US national anthem played before her shows (this was all pre-Pope incident). Footage here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clm6...