The Book of English Magic

In writing a review for this book I must be careful. For starters, I thought I'd picked up a social history of magic and the occult in England. It tuned out to be considerably more than that, containing a lot of “how-tos”, interviews with modern occult practitioners, lists of places to visit and things to do, reading lists and so on. There is also a bit of woo, and some rather dubious assertions that don't stand up to a modicum of basic internet research. But I'm a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic, so these aspects were always going to be anathema for me, and indeed I skimmed over much.

However for the believer, or somebody seeking an introduction to the history and modern practice of the occult, this book contains a vast wealth of interesting and valuable information. So putting aside my own prejudices, I have to give it four stars on account of its strengths for the audience at which it is aimed, deducting one for the occasional woo which mars the otherwise objective and healthily skeptical approach it takes, and some other annoyances such as irritatingly uncaptioned illustrations.