The Magic Shop
A Peculiar Parish Edition by H. G. Wells
“The shopman laughed at my amazement. ‘This is the genuine magic,’ he said. ‘The real thing.’”
A mysterious shopfront appears in Edwardian London’s Regent Street, its windows brimming with sleight-of-hand marvels. Crossing over the threshold, a wonderstruck boy and his skeptical father step into an eerie world of curious delights ruled over by a most peculiar proprietor. Entering the magic shop had been easy. Finding the way out will be a different matter entirely.
[read more below]
A Peculiar Parish Edition by H. G. Wells
“The shopman laughed at my amazement. ‘This is the genuine magic,’ he said. ‘The real thing.’”
A mysterious shopfront appears in Edwardian London’s Regent Street, its windows brimming with sleight-of-hand marvels. Crossing over the threshold, a wonderstruck boy and his skeptical father step into an eerie world of curious delights ruled over by a most peculiar proprietor. Entering the magic shop had been easy. Finding the way out will be a different matter entirely.
[read more below]
A Peculiar Parish Edition by H. G. Wells
“The shopman laughed at my amazement. ‘This is the genuine magic,’ he said. ‘The real thing.’”
A mysterious shopfront appears in Edwardian London’s Regent Street, its windows brimming with sleight-of-hand marvels. Crossing over the threshold, a wonderstruck boy and his skeptical father step into an eerie world of curious delights ruled over by a most peculiar proprietor. Entering the magic shop had been easy. Finding the way out will be a different matter entirely.
[read more below]
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Fiddler’s Green
Leaflet Zine, 36 pages.
About Fiddler’s Green Peculiar Parish
Fiddler’s Green Peculiar Parish Magazine was born of a languid afternoon of conversation on a sunny tavern lawn. Taking its name from the pleasant afterlife dreamed into being by sailors, cavalrymen, and other adventurous spirits, Fiddler’s Green gathers friends, good cheer, and a bit of magic to create a better world not someday, but now.
In ecclesiastical terms, the word “peculiar” refers to a district outside the jurisdiction of the Church. It’s also a good word for describing my own view of reality, and likely yours as well. And so here is a “peculiar parish magazine” for anyone who doesn’t feel the need to have their inner life directed by others. If it is peculiar that we wish to govern our bodies and souls ourselves, then let us be peculiar.
The conversation continues, and there is room for you in it. Each of us is on our own journey, both in this world and whatever lies beyond it. Sometimes the path is well lit; at other times it is obscured. Your wanderings have brought you here, and I hope you’ll stray for a while with me and the other souls gathered at Fiddler’s Green.
Clint Marsh [Publisher]
Description
A mysterious shopfront appears in Edwardian London’s Regent Street, its windows brimming with sleight-of-hand marvels. Crossing over the threshold, a wonderstruck boy and his skeptical father step into an eerie world of curious delights ruled over by a most peculiar proprietor. Entering the magic shop had been easy. Finding the way out will be a different matter entirely.
First published in The Strand Magazine in 1903, H. G. Wells’ short story reminds us of the precious and fleeting nature of childlike wonder. After all, as the shopkeeper says, “It’s only the Right Sort of Boy gets through that doorway.”
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction. His writing career spanned more than sixty years, and his early science fiction novels—including The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds—earned him the title, alongside Jules Verne and Amazing Stories editor Hugo Gernsback, of “The Father of Science Fiction."
