LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is Book of the Week in The Times, and it’s frankly outrageous that a small marching band hasn’t trundled into my house to make some little celebratory parps in my honour 😤
My book, LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, is coming soon from @sceptrebooks (UK) and @princetonupress (US).
Scroll along for some pictures of Spark at her sparkiest, including:
🪦 Spark in her natural habitat
🖊️ Spark giving the most amazingly useless writing advice
🚬 Spark making every other author photo look naff by comparison
💀 Spark deciding to hold a wind-up cackling skull in front of her face in the middle of a BBC interview
🐈⬛ A bonus picture of the cover of my book - the cat’s name is Spider, and he once belonged to Patricia Highsmith (this and much, much more in LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD!)
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. The book isn’t out until April, but a few of these bind-ups are making their way through the world, and I wanted one of my own as a memento. The book is written! It’s (sort of) out in the wild! And you can preorder it HERE: https://lnk.to/LikeaCatLovesaBird
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.
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. She’d reemerge, with a new way of writing (and possibly a new cat), at a new desk in a new part of the world. It’s that lifelong slipperiness that I’ve tried to capture.
I wrote this book while working two jobs. While finishing the first draft, I’d set my alarm for 4am and plonk myself at the kitchen table. I’d listen to the same album on repeat (Treasure by Cocteau Twins, which I’ve now ruined for myself), and watch foxes going through the bins outside. I was probably doing something quite similar - some mornings I’d retrieve something worthwhile, and on others I’d end up finding an empty tube of Pringles and wonder if I was wasting my time. This is a grubby analogy, but writing can feel very grubby and we should talk about this more!
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 I’d been looking for.
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, before taking a pause: “like a cat loves a bird…”
🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛
Here’s something - LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is out now as an audiobook! A huge thank you to the very talented @harleyviveash for narrating the book so beautifully. Harley also turned up to the London launch a couple of weeks ago - a surreal experience to meet the person who’s far better at reading my words than I am.
One of my favourite parts of the book is an anecdote concerning Spark’s favourite pastime: coaxing her cats onto an enormous Persian rug, and then whizzing them around the room until everyone involved was slightly delirious. If you scroll along, you’ll find my draft of that story, then the published version, and then Harley’s wonderful narration of it. Get your paws on the audiobook to hear the whole thing! 🐈⬛
A sort of beyond-anything-I-could-have-hoped-for book launch in London last night. Somehow, and despite a tube strike, we managed pack out the room at @hatchardspiccadilly . A huge, huge thank you to everyone who showed up, bought a copy of LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD, asked amazing questions and stayed for drinks (quite a number of drinks). And a very special thank you my ‘in conversation’ partner, @_sophiehaydock_ .
Thanks, too, to @lrbbookshop , @waterstonesgowerstreet , @dauntbooks , @qpbooks , @waterstonestcr , @foylesforbooks , @waterstones_islington and @piccadillywaterstones for letting me sign books while I was visiting. And to @houseofbooksandfriends and @waterstonesmcr who let me do the same once I’d gotten off the train.
In other news, I’ve made a rod for my own back by insisting on drawing a cat doodle in every book I sign, which I’ve now learnt is a surefire way of holding up a queue and making me late to the pub. Must doodle faster!
Last night was dead special. Thanks to everyone who came out to the first launch event for Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark. There was havoc with the trains, and people made all kinds of heroic efforts to get there - it meant a lot!
A big thank you to @jennashworth82 for asking the best questions and putting me at ease. An equally big thank you to the amazing team at @blackwellsmcr (including @rednewsom ), and to my editor @charlotteaofh who used all of her ingenuity to overcome transport chaos. Oh, and thank you to everyone whose photos I’ve stolen in order to make this carousel.
Swipe along to see:
🐈⬛ me and my mum (who bought two copies, despite me having about ten spare ones at home)
🐦⬛ me and chair extraordinaire, @jennashworth82
🐈⬛ me and my Auntie Val (basically my mum, but blonde)
🐦⬛ a big old queue!
🐈⬛ the cat doodle I insisted on adding to every signed copy
💐 publication day flowers from @sceptrebooks last week (which, like me, look rather less perky a week on…)
🐈⬛ MERCH! The cat badges and bookmarks were a hit, it seemed
London and Edinburgh next week! I think there’s a couple of tickets left for the latter, if you’re local and fancy it - link in bio! x
Yes, me again - I know, I’m sick of me too.
The folks at @sceptrebooks have sent me this lovely CAROUSEL OF PRAISE for Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, so please enjoy all the nice things people have said.
Funny that my mum’s blurb (“Is this what you’ve been doing instead of sorting out your bathroom? Part of the floor was coming up last time I was round. I nearly tripped over. Maybe don’t leave it too long?”) didn’t make the cut, but maybe it can go on the paperback?
Hello - me again. To mark the publication of LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, I’ve written a little something for the Independent, all about Spark’s uncompromising devotion to her work. The full article’s linked in my bio, but you can have a nosey at some snippets here, too, if you like.
Thank you so much for all the love for the book. Publication day mainly consisted of me doing my day job, while my phone lit up with photos of the book in people’s hands/on their couches/in the paws of their cats. It’s been weird and great, but I’m mainly looking forward to travelling up and down the country over the next few weeks to give it a proper launch. Come along to an event if you can!
What a way to mark publication day! For the Guardian, I’ve written a piece on navigating the weird and wonderful world of Muriel Spark.
Read it… and do give my book a read, too. LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is out right now! 🐈⬛💘🐦⬛
