Magog

Albion Triptych #2

by Andrew Sinclair

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Andrew Sinclair was born in Oxford in 1935 and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. After earning a Ph.D. in American History from Cambridge, he pursued an academic career in the United States and England. His first two novels, written while he was still at Cambridge, were both published in 1959: The Breaking of Bumbo (based on his own experience in the Coldstream Guards, and later adapted for a 1970 film written and directed by Sinclair) and My Friend Judas. Other early novels included The Project (1960), The Hallelujah Bum (1963), and The Raker (1964). The latter, also available from Valancourt, is a clever mix of Gothic fantasy and macabre comedy and was inspired by Sinclair’s relationship with Derek Lindsay, the pseudonymous author of the acclaimed novel The Rack (1958). Sinclair’s best-known novel, Gog (1967), a highly imaginative, picaresque account of the adventures of a seven-foot-tall man who washes ashore on the Scottish coast, naked and suffering from amnesia, has been named one of the top 100 modern fantasy novels. As the first in the ‘Albion Triptych’, it was followed by Magog (1972) and King Ludd (1988).

Sinclair’s varied and prolific career has also included work in film and a large output of nonfiction. As a director, he is best known for Under Milk Wood (1972), adapted from a Dylan Thomas play and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Sinclair’s nonfiction includes works on American history (including The Better Half: The Emancipation of the American Woman, which won the 1967 Somerset Maugham Award), books on Dylan Thomas, Jack London, Che Guevara, and Francis Bacon, and, more recently, works on the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.

Sinclair was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1972. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Kaaron Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Magog" has been on my to-read list for a long time. It was shocking in some ways, particularly as it nears the end, because the main character is unlikable, manipulative and vicious. There are snippets of information, bizarre asides, assertions. I love that kind of thing; it had me taking notes to research more.
It's possibly dated a bit, but I think the world evoked is still strong. There's a section about the financial world which rings very true today.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

"But this book is not an epic, what ever its author's purpose may have been. Nor, despite its blurb, is it a “wonderfully sardonic morality tale.” Sinclair's juggled universe bears little resemblance to any known world, no matter how hard he tries to reinforce everything with documentary and travelogue. “Magog” is a febrile, self‐indulgent, opinionated and finally rather squalidly boring fling at the picaresque, written in a variety of styles (satirical, farcical, solemn‐sinister, solemn‐po etic, lugubrious, supercilious and fatuously epigrammatic), none of which carry much conviction." New York Times 1972.... a bit harsh but enough said!