Description:

In May 1910 the celebrated magician, Aleister Crowley, is invited to Rempstone, the Dorset manor of Commander Guy Marston. In a room set aside for the purpose, he conjures Bartzabel, the spirit of Mars, who predicts future conflicts in Turkey and Germany. After joining Crowley’s magical order, Marston appears willing to entertain and promote the magician’s cause, but secretly he is frightened and nervous of exposure, embarking on a fierce libel case against the authoress, Jane Panton, who gossiped about his family in a volume of Dorset memoirs. Yet another scandal lurks in the background of this conjuration, for Jane’s son, Douglas Panton, was washed up in Mount's Bay, Penzance, dressed in woman’s clothing and manacled. This gives rise to rumours of blackmail and black magic conspiracy. Other guest at Rempstone include Guy’s beautiful cousin, Daisy Bevan, with whom he has been having a long-standing affair, and the ghost-writer, Algernon Blackwood, whose horror story 'Nemesis of Fire' is set there.