As a bit of an impulse buy - I bought this book in the supermarket last Saturday because it had some magicky things in it. I am not particularly a fan of Harry Potter, though I admit as a concept it is very cleverly done and will have made absolutely tons of money for loads of people. If the Harry Potter machine had a serious spell book aimed at adults - it would probably work in the same way Lovecraft's Necronomicon and the worship of Cthulu works. What starts as fiction can later become fact.
The books of course have been intensively researched and much of what is in the Potter writings are taken from genuine ancient manuscripts and the personas of famous magicians and cunning folk of the past, then the material is changed round a bit, sugar coated,given a spin, renamed and made to sound childish enough to be suitable for kids. But its roots are in extremely intensive historical research regarding the history and culture of magical practices over the centuries. Be not fooled by the publicity blurb of the last 20 years or so surrounding the Potter vehicle - someone knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going with it.
For many people magick is fine as long as it can be kept on the telly and not in real life. The British Library is having a Harry Potter exhibition and the book shown contains pictures of exhibits from both the British Museum and The Museum of Witchcraft is Boscastle, Cornwall.
