I was surprised and privileged to be contacted recently by the President of The Modern Mystic League to tell me that I was this year’s winner of their prestigious ( perhaps prestidigitatious ) Les Brooks Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to their magazine The Memel during 2025.
The Modern Mystic League is one of the UK’s oldest Magic Societies. Formed in Blackburn in 1914 they have welcomed people interested in magic, from seasoned performers to enthusiastic amateurs and are still a strong presence on the magic scene in 2026.
The late great Paul Daniels was honorary Vice President until his death in 2016 , a role which has been continued by his wife Debbie McGee ever since.
The Memel is a rich and entertaining monthly magazine full of magic related articles and plenty of laughs in the form of cartoons and other gags selected by current editor Brian Lead.
Brian, an eminent performer and authority on magic history, is much in demand at magic conventions.
He is a member of both the MML and Northern Magic Circle.
He has read a number of my contributions to NMC’s own publication Northern Lights over the years, and asked a while back if I would mind him re-running some of the articles in Memel.
The rest is history, as someone once said. The nice thing is that magic fans across the Pennines seemed to like my efforts, and this year voted for me to receive their annual award.
I’m especially honoured as I’m the first winner who is not actually a member of their society.
