Description

Forty Years in & around Magic offers a wide-ranging, engrossing and highly readable account of magical goings-on in Victorian and early twentieth-century London. Harry Leat, the first editor of The Magic Wand and a renowned magic dealer and manufacturer, provides a series of autobiographical anecdotes that see him pranking strangers on public transport, turning down a job offer from Chung Ling Soo, and narrowly avoiding jail, among other activities. Leat’s amusing and engaging writing style makes his interactions with and observations about a host of magicians from the golden age of magic — including Kellar, Thurston, Houdini, P. T. Selbit, Félicien Trewey and Carlton — all the more entertaining.