Law and Magic Blog

A Mystery With Some Magic and a Lot of Political Commentary

If you are looking for a new mystery series to try out, I recommend Reginald Hill's Joe Sixsmith novels, starting with Blood Sympathy. So far, it's the only one I've read, and it happens to have some magic allusions. (The others may not). Joe is a PI operating in Luton, England. Mr. Hill assures us that this Luton is not the real city of that name, so any resemblance, etc. etc. Never mind. His novel is more than just a mystery story. It's a discussion of political, cultural, and social issues facing England in the latter part of the twentieth century.

Joe is a black PI who has opened up shop after he loses his regular union job. Silly man--he thinks being a PI would be easier work. He lives alone with his cat Whitey. Whitey's got black fur, and he is without a doubt one of the best cat characters I've met in a long time. He eats fried English breakfasts, drinks beers and loves riding around with Joe on his investigations, which of course means that he gets involved, and gives Joe advice. If you are lucky enough to live with a cat, you know that every cat thinks this is his or her job. What is realistic about the Joe-Whitey relationship is that only Joe understands Whitey's advice (the beer drinking and fried breakfasts I'm not so certain about, but I've heard of cats eating grapes, so perhaps...).

Two of Joe's clients bring him "magical" problems. One tells Joe he has had a dream that he has murdered his family. Joe feels compelled to call the cops and report the possibility--of course they find nothing and are very annoyed. Then, it happens, and Joe is naturally somewhat concerned. The other practices witchcraft and wants Joe to recover a charm that she claims her husband's mistress is using against her. This client actually has money to pay Joe so he's particularly enchanted by her case, even though he finds her somewhat off-putting. The mistress, by contrast, is quite seductive. After he succeeds in getting the charm back, she becomes ill mysteriously, he sneaks the charm into the hospital, and she suddenly gets better. He finds this truly weird, and Mr. Hill gives us no explanation; we're allowed to come with some for ourselves. The second client, Gwen, comes to Joe through a recommendation from his acquaintance, a solicitor who was at school with her and who's a confirmed skeptic, and who has trouble telling Gwen that Joe is any kind of believer in the paranormal. Instead she tells Gwen that Joe has "blood sympathy," which conveys to Gwen that he has inherited some kind of feeling for the paranormal--hence the novel's title.

Blood Sympathy is well written, as are all Mr. Hill's books. Following Joe along his journey to solve his clients' problems, I learned a little British criminal procedure, a little British police procedure, and a fair amount about British race relations, which I'll check out in some non-fiction works. Although it's out of print, used bookstores should have copies.

More On Funding Cuts at the Senate House Library

Here's the response I got from Christine Muller at the Senate House Library about the possibility of funding cuts at the Library. She tells me that "there are no plans at present either to remove the Harry Price Library from Senate House Library or to sell it," but that "a recent HEFCE review has decided that the special funding stream for SHL will be cut from £1103K p.a. to £397K p.a. - this represents 16% of SHL's current operational expenditure. A further review by the Colleges of the University of London is now taking place to determine the future mission and funding of SHL." More information about the funding cuts is available at the Senate House Library at http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk and in the latest issue of the Senate House Library e-Newsletter at http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/newsletter/newsletter_current.pdf. The Library is not asking for donations right now but if people want to make donations they should send them to

David Pearson

Director of ULRLS

Senate House Library

Gower Street

London, England

WC1E 7HU

The Library will use them for the conservation of materials in the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.

Ms. Muller can be reached at University of London Research Library Services University of London House Malet Street London, WC1E 7HU Tel: 020 7862 8412 email: cmuller@london.ac.uk

Harry Price was the psychical researcher active during the early part of the twentieth century who investigated such sites as Borley Rectory and such people as Stella C, Eileen Garrett, the Schneider Brothers, and Helen Duncan. He gave a large collection of literature on magic and psychic phenomena for safekeeping to the Senate House Library in 1937.

Library donors and users often don't realize that while giving materials to a library is a wonderful thing, that's just the first step in making them available. Such materials have to be cataloged and otherwise prepared, and then they have to be maintained so that users can continue to consult them and enjoy them in future. The maintenance of a collection is one of the hidden, and unglamorous, costs that libraries bear. All of you who aren't spending money at that Starbucks which closed! Spare a thought--and at least four bucks--if not for the Senate House Library, for some magical library, somewhere. It's worthwhile, and it's tax-deductible.

Funding Cuts Endanger Valuable Collection of Magic Materials at University of London

From the Wild Hunt Blog: The Harry Price Library of Magical Literature is in danger of being sold off because of funding cuts. I emailed the staff about making donations. I'll post any relevant information received.

Law in a Magical World

Dave Hoffman of the blog Concurring Opinions posts an interview with writer Pat Rothfuss here. Among the questions:

Can you imagine creating and writing explicitly about a world where magic and a litigation-based, common-law system, co-existed?

Absolutely. In fact, I've written such a world. You don't see much of it in this first book, but there is a working common-law system in my world. I don't think that the rule of law and magic are mutually exclusive at all.

Thanks to Sydney Beckman of Charleston School of Law for alerting me to this post.

Happy Birthday to the Magical P. L. Travers

Today is P. L. Travers' (nee Helen Goff) birthday. She was born August 9, 1899 in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia. The children's author wrote the Mary Poppins books, which were famously turned into that Disney movie starring Julie Andrews, of which Ms. Travers disapproved. Read more in a New Yorker essay by Caitlin Flanagan here.