Oliver Darkshire

Books can change lives. Magic books can change everything.

In a tiny, miserable farm on the edge of the tiny, miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her equally tiny and miserable existence. Dividing her time between enduring her feckless husband, inadequately caring for the farm’s strange collection of animals, cooking up ‘scrunge’, and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella can’t help but think that there might be something more to life. So, while she’s initially aghast when Mr. Nagg comes home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she soon starts to think: what harm could a little magic do?

As Isabella embarks on a journey of self-discovery with a grouchy cat-like companion, Darkshire’s imagination runs wild, plunging readers into a delightfully deranged world full of enchantment, folklore, and an entrepreneurial villain running a magical Ponzi scheme.

Cosy, full of wit and Pratchett-ian footnotes, Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a book for those who can’t help but find magic even in the oddest and most baffling circumstances; a story about claiming a new life and finding oneself - and also goblins, capitalism, and sorcery.