In the beginning, these islands seeped with magic. It floated on the rivers and trickled with the sap from the trees. Beloved writer and historian Nicholas Jubber guides us around the stories of Britain and Ireland and an alternative journey through their history. From the building of neolithic cairns and the age of the druids, through the so-called Dark Ages, the rise of Christianity, the Viking and Norman invasions and other key moments of medieval history, we travel through the centuries to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century and beyond. Featuring a ‘devil’s dozen’ of thirteen core figures and events, each of them rooted in history but rich in magical influence, we explore how wielders of magic influenced events and shaped these islands’ emerging nations. Amongst these figures, we encounter the druids who stood against the might of the Roman Empire, the historical origins behind the story of Merlin, the heartbreaking stories of the most beloved and most notorious of Britain’s witches, and scientist-occultists such as Queen Elizabeth I’s favoured confidante, Dr John Dee. We see how magical and scientific thinking coiled together over the centuries, and the significance of magical ideas such as second sight and alchemy to key figures of the Scientific Revolution such as Robert Boyle and, most importantly of all, Sir Isaac Newton. Exploring the enduring legacy of sorcery through encounters with practitioners of the present, and showing how magical thinking can re-connect us with the natural world, These Sorcerers’ Isles uncovers a magical past that lies under the present like a secret vault under a mighty monument, waiting to be excavated.
