RANDOM JOTTINGS

"Two magicians shall appear in England. The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very opposite of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms the one between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine"

It must be about eight years ago now that I fell victim to a dreadful illness which took me over for two weeks.  It was called Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell-itis and its outward manifestations were a far away look, a lack of attention to daily life and dark circles under the eyes.

The cause of this was the discovery of a wonderful book, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke, all about magic and faerie in England.  On the face of it this was not a book that appealed to me in the slightest and I ended up reading it, not for reasons of literary merit, but because Amazon was selling it half price (come on we have all done this, let's be honest…).  So it arrived, I struggled through the first 50 or so pages thinking this is not for me, and then I arrived in York Minster and Jonathan Strange brought the statues to life and that was it.  I was hooked.

This book is of doorstep size and could not be carted on my then daily commute so it was evenings and weekends until I had finished it, hence the black circles concomitant with nightly reading in bed till 2 am in the morning despite the fact I had to get up to get on the train and go to work. I look back on those days and feel a tremendous sense of relief that I can now sit up all night and read if I wish to.

It is odd how sometimes you feel a book is not for you. This one was certainly high on the list and it took me months to get round to it but I was certainly glad I did. It took hold of me completely. Now a BBC dramatisation will  soon be on the television and I am really looking forward to what they make of it. After the superb adaptation of Wolf Hall I am rather hopeful. And if Jonathan Strange was a book  I persevered with and finally enjoyed, then perhaps I need to give Hilary Mantel another crack.

Bloomsbury have reissued a new paperback edition which will make for easier reading than the hardback, if for reasons of weight only, and I am also hoping that they might reissue The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a collection of short stories which was beautifully produced in a wonderful slip cover with Beardsley-ish type illustrations in black and white. My copy seems to have vanished in a move somewhere along the line so may have to keep an eye out for another copy.  

Susanna Clarke spent over ten years writing Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Wonder if she has another ready to go?