The English Magicians & the Raven King

Twenty years ago, Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" came to us "out of mists and rain." Reading it as a teenager changed my life forever.

A painting of John Uskglass, the Raven King from the BBC’s adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. (Notice the fairy (the Gentleman with the Thistle-down Hair) lurking in the background?) © BBC

Around the turn of the twelfth century A.D., a group of men abandoned a baby in a remote forest. The men had already carried out their nefarious plot—murdering a nobleman by the name of John d’Uskglass, whose estate once rested in the north of England. Lest they one day be outmaneuvered by Uskglass’s heir, they left the baby in an ancient wood, hoping the wild beasts would finish the job.

But the fairies found him first.

And the sidhe did what they do best: they took the child and brought him to their lands.

Years later, in 1110 A.D., a strange army materialized on the outskirts of Newcastle. The riders spoke no English, nor French, but wherever they went, cities and towns fell in quick succession and the cry of birdsong heralded their glory. It was a fairy army, come to conquer the north of …