Bewitched

     When I opened Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches for a quick glance I had no intention of reading the book then and there, but testament to its power to draw the reader in, I was gripped from the first page and didn't put it down. Thus, I spent the reading week in the company of witches, vampires and daemons, but really - with one or two notable exceptions - what a civilised bunch they are, and what a ripping yarn this is!

    The story begins in Oxford's Bodleian Library where academics Diana Bishop (witch and historian of science) and Matthew Clairmont (vampire and eminent geneticist) meet when Diana consults a strange alchemical manuscript, thought to have been lost for years. The book had been spell-bound, but somehow, and without her knowing how she'd done it, Diana broke the spell and was able to use it for her research on the allegorical image tradition in England. Her calling up of Ashmole 782 was innocently done, but it turns out that others have designs on the book, and their motives - and methods - are not as wholesome as Diana's.

    What follows is a fascinatingly detailed story, an unusual romance, an exciting adventure, with - overall - a certain cosiness to it and the sense that though dangers will be encountered and serious peril faced, all will be well in the end. How well, I cannot say, for the happy news is that this novel is the first of a trilogy entitled All Souls, and I look forward enormously to the next in the series, having enjoyed this one so much. Full of references, historical and literary, and arcane knowledge about the world of beings with special powers, A Discovery of Witches has been a marvellously entertaining read, hard to classify neatly perhaps, but great fun - and if you're snowed in (and much of Scotland is just now, it seems) this would be the perfect book to have to hand!