The best books about magic, heroes, and rock ‘n’ roll

A formative book from my childhood, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen kick-started my love of all things magic, heroic, and fantastical. Not only that, but the setting was close to where I grew up – these were locations I knew but viewed through a mythic lens. Loosely based on the legend of the Wizard of Alderley Edge, Alan Garner creates a fantasy world that feels so real as two children are pulled into an adventure where the very future of the world of men is on the line. It remains so influential on my own writing that I still return to the old dwarf caves of Fundinvale as an adult and enjoy the tale every bit as much as I did when I was a ten-year-old reading by torchlight under the duvet.

What on earth would possess you to burn a million quid? And if you’re going to, why travel to the small Scottish island of Jura to do it? Was this some ill-conceived publicity stunt, a cry for help, or a ceremony born of chaos and magic? John Higgs takes the reader on a deep dive into the fractured psyche of a couple of musicians that were briefly the most successful singles band in the world, and attempts to unravel the reasons behind what many people felt was either a self-absorbed, utterly insane, or obsessively destructive act. Along the way we dip into the philosophy of Discordianism, the influence of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea’s Illuminatus! trilogy and the significance of darkly magical rabbits, as we’re provided with enough clues to draw our own conclusions. 

The old gods and new are on a collision course to a seemingly inevitable war and we’re taken along for the ride through the eyes of Shadow Moon, a recently widowed, small-time criminal, just released from jail. He hooks up with the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, working as a driver-cum-bodyguard-cum-odd job man, who guides him through the margins of a little-seen United States. Neil Gaiman’s novel of magical realism brilliantly sets up a world that we almost recognise as our own, but is somehow two clicks south of reality, weaving in the oddities of roadside attractions, with folklore and ancient stories to create a narrative that’s both a familiar hero’s journey and a wildly original campfire tale.

The birth of punk rock was never really about the music – or at least not just about the music – and England’s Dreaming sets the context for probably the most volatile genre to assault the senses. Jon Savage’s book explores the historical and social setting that led to this – albeit brief – explosion in youth culture. He links together the birth of anarchism with the Situationist art movement alongside the eventual do-it-yourself attitude of punk fashion and music to create a narrative that’s both fascinating and incredibly relevant to the world today. As the legendary contemporaneous fanzine, Sniffing Glue once put it: Here’s a guitar chord, here’s another, here’s another…now go form a band!

A children’s book that’s so much more than the linear tale of a naughty child who crosses the sea to become king of an island of monsters (for being the wildest thing of them all). The simple narrative explores anger, frustration, rebellion, and – perhaps most importantly – the power of a child’s imagination. Through couplets, Maurice Sendak conjures up a powerful story with incredible imagery – who can forget Max’s paper boat sailing back ‘over a year; and in and out of weeks; and through a day; and into the night of his very own room’? – and a, somehow, anti-moralistic ending. There are lessons to be learned here, but the reader is free to make up their own mind as to what they are. Plus, the artwork’s pretty cool.