Creative Folkestone Book Festival: James Bailey: Muriel Spark, Rewritten

This is a literary event in the annual Folkestone Book Festival, built around James Bailey’s portrait of Muriel Spark and the making of literary reputation. The talk explores Spark as a novelist, poet and satirist, and looks at how myth, contradiction and speculation can shape the way a writer is remembered.

It also draws on Bailey’s biography of Spark to trace a life shaped by reinvention, ambition, faith and artistic brilliance.

The event is chaired by Sophie Haydock, who will guide the conversation and bring out the wider questions around identity, self-invention and the relationship between art and life. Audiences can expect a thoughtful discussion of Spark’s work and legacy, followed by a book signing in The Clearing.

It is designed for anyone interested in books, biography and modern literary culture, as well as readers wanting to rediscover one of Britain’s most distinctive writers.