The Magicians

No one tells a story as brilliantly as JB Priestley and it is really great that his writing is making a comeback and that many more of his books are now available.

I read Priestley's "Lost Empires" a few tears ago and was very impressed how well that book still reads and how the author created a good story with a clear sense of time and place. In trying Priestly again by reading "The Magicians" I have not been dissapointed. It has an intriguing plot, which as so often with Priestly, plays with the concept of time. As I find with many novels of this period the plot moves on quickly and I found myself wanting to read more to see where we aere going. I shall read more Priestly.

Fans of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Maurice Nicoll will find this a hoot. It should be much better known. It has a strong message for these days of AI and talk of transhumanism. I asked ChatGPT about the novel and Priestley’s interest in Gurdjieff only for ChatGPT to tell me that J B Priestley had never written a novel by this name. The theme partly reappears also in his later novel The Shapes of Sleep with its Antiants Society, but I prefer The Magicians. Having seen Le Carre’s The Night Manager it’s difficult not to visualise Tom Hollander’s Corky as Major Prisk and the fact that Perperk is so obviously Gurdjieff is a delight and a mystery. J B Priestley is said to have read Maurice Nicole’s Living Time, but how did he come to capture so many facets of Gurdjieff’s character as well as his vernacular. If you read one J B Priestley read this one.

Priestley is greatly underrated. The Magicians gives a taste of the flavour of his work and ideas. I Do not intend to go into plot or characters because it may spoil the awaiting experience of future readers . But as usual Priestley weaves a unique web of intrigue . So all I can say is that you should certainly buy this book : it's a certainty that you will enjoy it.

This was a real find. I haven't read any Priestley for some years, and always find his writing thought-provoking. Although dated in some ways (everybody smokes and drinks the whole time, and the main protagonists are all men) the overall theme is surprisingly relevant. What is important in life - do we value the acquisition of money and power over human relationships?

Loved the story. Great characters. There's more to time than we think. Sure J B thought the same.

Of its time of course but he is such a superb storyteller I was sorry when I finished the book.

Always an admirer of J.B. and I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the characters.

Weirdly pertinent to today with an underpinning of magic realism. The writing is denser than most modern writing, (1954) but this book was hard to put down. It's a recent re-issue from a small publisher in the South. Great escape reading...

It will take some time to process his novel which I wish I had read with someone else, feeling the need to talk about it. Lead character Charles Ravenstreet is led into mystical experiences without once losing his footing in reality.

The later works of priestly are just not as good as his earlier work, still a nice read for a rainy sunday afternoon with a cupper and a biscuit.

Excellent,story, well developed but the moist important part is the possibilities he envisions as to life; without being a happy endeing it does depict a better ending to a life. I had read Priestley in the sixties and I'm so happy he has been rediscovered, I'ill read many more of his Works, definitely

I didn't know what to expect and it was easy to keep laughing at the situation all the while hoping the story would end well. I want to read it again!