Kevin Jackson
Use Your Illusions
Conjuring Asia: Magic, Orientalism, and the Making of the Modern World
By Chris Goto-Jones
Cambridge University Press 327pp £18.99
Fun fact: in 1849, Charles Dickens, a keen amateur conjuror, blacked up his face and hands, donned a set of colourful robes and presented himself as The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rama Rhoos – a name probably inspired by a well-known pair of Indian jugglers, Ramo Samee and Kia Khan Khruse. One thread of Chris Goto-Jones’s frequently interesting book sketches the craze, at its height towards the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th, for British and American stage magicians to present themselves as masters of arcane arts derived from the Mysterious East and, in some cases, actually to pose as Indian, Arabian, Chinese or Japanese talents.
Like minstrel shows, this fad went into severe decline as the century grew older: its last gasp was probably the career of the much-loved children’s entertainer Ali Bongo, whose collection of magical spells included the memorable phrase ‘uju buju suck another juju’. The height of its popularity happened
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk