Rachel Morris’ new book,
‘The Years of the Wizard’
All things were believable back then – wizards, alchemy, fairies, elixirs and angels
Published by Duckworth Books, October 9th 2025.
‘The Years of the Wizard’ is a highly atmospheric exploration of the lives of the Tudor and Renaissance magicians, men like John Dee and Giordano Bruno, who were also scientists, astrologers, mathematicians and alchemists.
It is also an act of historical imagination, bringing to life the stories of the magicians’ wives, mothers, lovers, daughters and servants, the women who supported and assisted the work of these travelling magicians as they promised answers and gold for the rulers of England and Europe.
‘An exquisitely crafted, evocative book that immerses the reader in the mysterious world of Tudor magicians. This is the sort of book that stays with you for a long time.’
Tracy Borman
‘Absolutely enthralling, a real treasure trove of a book – the marrying of history and speculative history made for an immensely evocative and fascinating read. The period leaps off the page, bringing the historical figures to life, and painting a detailed picture of not only the physical surroundings of the Elizabethans, but also their spiritual and metaphysical worlds. I’ll be dipping into this for research for many a future novel.’
Naomi Kelsey
‘This is a sparkling mixture of fact and fiction that probably provides the best current introduction for a newcomer to the world of Renaissance learned magicians.’
Professor Ronald Hutton
‘A creative history that powerfully evokes the romance of Renaissance magic.’
Marion Gibson
About Rachel
‘I always planned to be a writer,’ says Rachel, ‘it’s what I wanted from the time that I was little, it’s just that it’s taken me a while to get there. I had two novels published in my late thirties, including ‘Ella and the Mothers’ which was turned into a television series for the BBC. After that came a long period during which I was the director of a museum-making company called Metaphor, and thus part of the creation, design and delivery of some of the most exciting museum-renovations of the last few decades, from the new Cast Courts at the V and A and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to the Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was a fascinating time in my life but I still came back to writing, as I always knew I would, with first ‘The Museum Makers’ (2020), a blend of memoir and cultural history and now, most recently, ‘The Years of the Wizard’ – an account of the strange, true history of Renaissance magic.’
Join me on substack
Story Talk is about writing books and getting published, and aims to capture three-years-worth of thoughts and ideas that bubbled to the surface of my mind whilst I was writing my book.
