I’ve just finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for the third time, this time in the form of a 32 hour read-aloud performed by Simon Prebble. I love that book. Despite having read it twice, I honestly, truly, could not remember how it ended (how is this possible?). Anyway, I had also completely forgotten this little exchange, which is more surprising still, as it always (I think) makes me cry. You can listen, and read along, if you like.

“And now, Your Majesty,” said Strange, “I think it is time we returned to the Castle. You and I, Your Majesty, are a British King, and a British magician. Though Great Britain may desert us, we have no right to desert Great Britain. She may have need of us yet.”

“True, true. I swore an oath at my coronation always to serve her!

Oh, my poor country!”

And that is nobility.

Also, I had forgotten this passage which gives me chills — Clarke has written this so well, so authentically, that my hair stands on end when I think of it. I’ve uploaded the whole exchange for you to hear, below I have transcribed the prescription from Ormskirk’s Revelations of Thirty Six other Worlds:

Place the moon at my eyes and her whiteness shall
devour the false sights the deceiver has placed there.
Place a swarm of bees at my ears, bees love truth and will destroy the deceiver’s lies.
Place salt in my mouth lest the deceiver attempt to delight me with the taste of honey or disgust me with the taste of ashes.
Nail my hand with an iron nail so that I shall not raise it to do the deceiver’s bidding.

Place my heart in a secret place so that all my desires shall be my own
and the deceiver shall find no hold there.

Chills.