talkmagic.co.uk

Joe Strong eh? I wonder if that inspired the title for Alan Moore's retro super hero comic Tom Strong.

"The Shadow in the North" by Philip Pullman is part of his Sally Lockhart series (which pre-date the Dark Materials trilogy). The novels are set in Victorian London. This particular novel features heavily a magician called Mackinnon who has the nickname the Wizard of the North. Mackinnon seems to be a combination of the two characters from Victorian London who really did have the nickname Wizard of the North - the medium Donald Dunglas Hume and the stage magician John Henry Anderson.

In the novel "Mackinnon" seems to have the personaility and physical frame of Hume while his stahe show is very similar to Anderson's.

If you enjoy Victorian mysteries set in pea soup fog London and/or His dark Materials I heartily recommend the Sally Lockhart series.

A dramatised version of The Shadow in the North is on British TV (BBC) at some time over Christmas.

Barry