Like a Cat Loves a Bird

"This is a deeply stylish, astute and illuminating biography of a fascinating writer"FRANCESCA WADE, author of Square Haunting"Utterly charming.A book as elegant, sharp-witted and mischievous as its subject"CLARE POLLARD, author of Delphi"She was, if you believe what you read in the papers: a genius, a survivor, a bad mother, a fickle friend, a closeted lesbian, a tyrant, a loner, an eccentric, a recluse, a gossip, and an arch-manipulator.She would politely encourage you not to believe what you read in the papers."Muriel Spark was one of literature's great shapeshifters.That mercurial quality is found in her strange, brilliant, cruel novels - with their plots featuring pensioners 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 is a thrilling new perspective on a remarkable life and car