Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke. Published by Bloomsbury, 2020

In a line – Piranese is a charming fantasy, as light and satisfying as a dream in the mid-afternoon. It’s well-written, too, and easily digested in few hours, leaving a fresh, expansive aftertaste.

I’d put it alongside that particularly English style of occult-inflected fictional classics like Bulwer-Lytton’s Zanoni, Dion Fortune’s Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, and others.

In a line: This is a great folkloric banger book of genius loci stories, with intimations of a course of study and method of seeking out and working directly with them.

The slightly salacious inclusion of the provocative term “Demons” in the title notwithstanding, this slim text efficiently, elliptically ties together the shaggiest of dog stories into a tangential masterpiece.

I adore this guy's work, unreservedly. Lecouteux's work always makes me think. I'm always enhanced, in some oblique way, by reading one of his books.

Faustian Futurist is an invitation into a pretty sketchy world – a demimonde of intelligence agents, revolutionaries, Ufologists, breakaway Nazi secret societies and Atlantean Space Brothers. It also touches on the weirdos who think they're in the game, but really are just the playing pieces.

As a novel, it's a lot like the Illuminatus Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson, in terms of content. This was hugely influential on me, so I've a soft spot for historical and alt-historical conspiracy fiction. It's a great way to explore and enflesh ideas.