James Bailey
@drjamesbailey.bsky.social
Writer who lives in Manchester. Rep’d by Creative Artists Agency. LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD, my biography of Muriel Spark, is out in April 2026 🐈⬛
https://lnk.to/LikeaCatLovesaBird
Instagram.com/drjamesbailey
https://lnk.to/LikeaCatLovesaBird
Instagram.com/drjamesbailey
Some trivia: The cat Spark’s holding on the cover was named Spider; she’d adopted him from Patricia Highsmith. Spider was a fan of fireworks - he found that their booms tended to stun the nearby lizards, making them easy for him to hunt down and kill. I imagine Spark admired this display of cunning…
November 2, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Some trivia: The cat Spark’s holding on the cover was named Spider; she’d adopted him from Patricia Highsmith. Spider was a fan of fireworks - he found that their booms tended to stun the nearby lizards, making them easy for him to hunt down and kill. I imagine Spark admired this display of cunning…
Spoiler: obeying the “queer dictatorial” voice in your head leads to you getting up to all sorts in South Africa, London, New York, Rome and Tuscany, writing 22 wild and uncompromising novels, meeting several useless men, adopting innumerable stray cats, and sporting some really enormous hairdos ✨
November 2, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Spoiler: obeying the “queer dictatorial” voice in your head leads to you getting up to all sorts in South Africa, London, New York, Rome and Tuscany, writing 22 wild and uncompromising novels, meeting several useless men, adopting innumerable stray cats, and sporting some really enormous hairdos ✨
“I am paralysed as a writer”, Spark once said, “unless I write according to this queer dictatorial sense I have”.
This is a book about restlessness, reinvention and the kind of life that can unfold when you choose to obey the “queer, dictatorial” voice in your head.
This is a book about restlessness, reinvention and the kind of life that can unfold when you choose to obey the “queer, dictatorial” voice in your head.
November 2, 2025 at 7:01 PM
“I am paralysed as a writer”, Spark once said, “unless I write according to this queer dictatorial sense I have”.
This is a book about restlessness, reinvention and the kind of life that can unfold when you choose to obey the “queer, dictatorial” voice in your head.
This is a book about restlessness, reinvention and the kind of life that can unfold when you choose to obey the “queer, dictatorial” voice in your head.
Here’s the cover for LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, out 16 April with @sceptrebooks.bsky.social
Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove...
Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious
🐈⬛ 🐈⬛ 🐈⬛
Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove...
Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious
🐈⬛ 🐈⬛ 🐈⬛
November 2, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Here’s the cover for LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, out 16 April with @sceptrebooks.bsky.social
Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove...
Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious
🐈⬛ 🐈⬛ 🐈⬛
Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove...
Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious
🐈⬛ 🐈⬛ 🐈⬛
We sent an early copy of Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark to Francesca Wade, whose books I love, and she wrote the blurb of my dreams. ‘Slippery’! ‘Chaotic’! ‘Often hilarious’! 🐈⬛
October 22, 2025 at 7:30 AM
We sent an early copy of Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark to Francesca Wade, whose books I love, and she wrote the blurb of my dreams. ‘Slippery’! ‘Chaotic’! ‘Often hilarious’! 🐈⬛
More from the proof. Pink pages; one about Spark and cats, the other about ME!
October 21, 2025 at 7:22 PM
More from the proof. Pink pages; one about Spark and cats, the other about ME!
This isn't the final cover, by the way - we just wanted to give the cat his time in the spotlight before Spark takes centre stage for the shop-bound version. And there are hours of fun to be had pretending to have half a cat head, let me tell you.
October 21, 2025 at 6:35 PM
This isn't the final cover, by the way - we just wanted to give the cat his time in the spotlight before Spark takes centre stage for the shop-bound version. And there are hours of fun to be had pretending to have half a cat head, let me tell you.
Proofs are in! A huge thank you to @sceptrebooks.bsky.social for sending these my way. LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK will be out in April, and these proofs will be going out into the world imminently. Terrifying! Exciting! Mostly terrifying!
October 21, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Proofs are in! A huge thank you to @sceptrebooks.bsky.social for sending these my way. LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK will be out in April, and these proofs will be going out into the world imminently. Terrifying! Exciting! Mostly terrifying!
The first blurb for my book is in!
I’m so delighted that the brilliant Francesca Wade (whose new Gertrude Stein biography is amazing) had this to say about LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD
I’m so delighted that the brilliant Francesca Wade (whose new Gertrude Stein biography is amazing) had this to say about LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD
October 7, 2025 at 7:24 PM
The first blurb for my book is in!
I’m so delighted that the brilliant Francesca Wade (whose new Gertrude Stein biography is amazing) had this to say about LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD
I’m so delighted that the brilliant Francesca Wade (whose new Gertrude Stein biography is amazing) had this to say about LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD
He has something very grave to impart.
October 7, 2025 at 6:31 PM
He has something very grave to impart.
I love this photo because it looks like it belongs in a life insurance brochure, which is all I’ve ever really wanted, to be honest.
October 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
I love this photo because it looks like it belongs in a life insurance brochure, which is all I’ve ever really wanted, to be honest.
Update: a thoroughly demented read, 10/10
October 3, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Update: a thoroughly demented read, 10/10
Curiosity got the better of me and I had to see what was in this book. The Index alone is really quite something.
October 3, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Curiosity got the better of me and I had to see what was in this book. The Index alone is really quite something.
Very sad to hear of the death of Patricia Routledge, although I’m now laughing at the memory of first moving in with my boyfriend, and finding out that he owned a copy of Hyacinth Bucket’s Book of Etiquette: For the Socially Less Fortunate 💜
October 3, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Very sad to hear of the death of Patricia Routledge, although I’m now laughing at the memory of first moving in with my boyfriend, and finding out that he owned a copy of Hyacinth Bucket’s Book of Etiquette: For the Socially Less Fortunate 💜
He thinks he’s a member of the Happy Mondays.
September 17, 2025 at 6:23 PM
He thinks he’s a member of the Happy Mondays.
He thinks he’s a bee.
September 17, 2025 at 5:51 PM
He thinks he’s a bee.
He thinks he’s a potato.
September 17, 2025 at 5:10 PM
He thinks he’s a potato.
I should explain the choice of title. Spark was once asked whether she hated her characters. This is a reasonable thing to assume; terrible things happen to many of them.
But Spark disagreed with the question. "Oh no, I love them most intensely", she replied, “like a cat loves a bird..."
But Spark disagreed with the question. "Oh no, I love them most intensely", she replied, “like a cat loves a bird..."
August 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM
I should explain the choice of title. Spark was once asked whether she hated her characters. This is a reasonable thing to assume; terrible things happen to many of them.
But Spark disagreed with the question. "Oh no, I love them most intensely", she replied, “like a cat loves a bird..."
But Spark disagreed with the question. "Oh no, I love them most intensely", she replied, “like a cat loves a bird..."
Anyway, here are some photos that sum the whole thing up. My favourite is the one where you can see me working through some of the worst book titles the world has ever known, before finding what l'd been looking for.
August 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Anyway, here are some photos that sum the whole thing up. My favourite is the one where you can see me working through some of the worst book titles the world has ever known, before finding what l'd been looking for.
This book is about restlessness, I think. As a person and as a writer, Spark was fidgety. Time and again, she responded to periods of crisis and creative stagnancy by gathering her life into a new shape and beginning again. It's that lifelong slipperiness that l've tried to capture.
August 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM
This book is about restlessness, I think. As a person and as a writer, Spark was fidgety. Time and again, she responded to periods of crisis and creative stagnancy by gathering her life into a new shape and beginning again. It's that lifelong slipperiness that l've tried to capture.
I loved writing this. It was also terrifying. Spark was a genius, and I am someone who once became very ill after thinking a piece of potpourri was a biscuit. She and I are not the same, and writing about her life and work kept me on my toes.
August 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
I loved writing this. It was also terrifying. Spark was a genius, and I am someone who once became very ill after thinking a piece of potpourri was a biscuit. She and I are not the same, and writing about her life and work kept me on my toes.
Here's a photo of me, looking quite sleep-deprived as I clutch a very early copy of my book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK. It isn’t out until April, but a few of these bind-ups are making their way through the world, and I wanted one as a memento. The book is written!
August 11, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Here's a photo of me, looking quite sleep-deprived as I clutch a very early copy of my book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK. It isn’t out until April, but a few of these bind-ups are making their way through the world, and I wanted one as a memento. The book is written!
God, I love The Human League
August 3, 2025 at 4:58 PM
God, I love The Human League
More pictures - I would simply never be in a bad mood here!
August 3, 2025 at 8:34 AM
More pictures - I would simply never be in a bad mood here!
I spend a lot of time thinking about when Kate Pierson from the B-52s put her motel up for sale (furniture included)
August 2, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I spend a lot of time thinking about when Kate Pierson from the B-52s put her motel up for sale (furniture included)