Derren Brown's Book for Magicians

Derren Brown (you’ve probably heard of him) finally released his hotly anticipated book for the magic community on Tuesday, but you might have to wait before you can get your hands on a copy; the initial release sold out in ten minutes!

The book, Notes From A Fellow Traveller, is a detailed journal written during the tour of his 2021-2023 show, Showman. Within the book, Derren explores everything that goes into putting a show together: his thoughts, feelings and lessons learned after making “thirty years of mistakes”.

In case you were unaware, Derren has released many books throughout his career but hasn’t published anything specifically for magicians and mentalists since Absolute Magic 20 years ago. So, the significance of his latest offering can’t be stressed enough, with influential magician, actor and longtime collaborator Andy Nyman describing it as “the most important book about performing magic ever written”.

High praise indeed!

To mark the occasion, the book was launched at an exclusive, ticketed event held by The Magicians’ Podcast at the world-famous Magic Circle headquarters. All attendees received a personally signed copy of the book, as well as a photograph with the man himself, and witnessed a live podcast recording between Derren and host Richard Young.

Not only was the book launched that evening, but the live recording saw the return of the much-loved The Magicians’ Podcast, with the interview set to be the comeback episode later this year.

I was lucky enough to grab a ticket to the event, so keep your eyes posted for when that podcast episode comes out because I, for one, can’t wait to listen to Derren’s invaluable insights once again. A short glimpse at what happened that evening was published by The Magicians’ Podcast here.

As for when copies will be available again, it really is anyone’s guess. In response to the huge influx of orders when the book went live on Derren’s site, he tweeted, “We’ve had to pause book orders for a bit on my site but bear with us [...] Kinda went mad today.”

When they are eventually for sale again, you’ll find two editions available: paperback and hardback. Initially, there was a deluxe, leather-wrapped edition, but this was a strictly limited run of 300, and boy did 300 hardcore Derren Brown-obsessed fanatical weirdos snap them up, myself included. Even so, the slick design of both the paperback and hardback editions are gorgeous enough to have anyone’s pride and place in their magic library.

Published by The Neat Review, the paperback edition retails at £45, with the hardback copy being £75. What’s that? How much was the deluxe edition? Doesn’t matter. It’s sold out anyway...

Okay, please don’t judge me... £200. But it’s an investment and absolutely stunning, AND I’m at the bottom of my overdraft, so who cares anyway!

This is how many first editions there are in the world:

• 3,000 Paperback

• 1,500 Hardback

• 300 Deluxe Editions!

At the moment, nobody is selling any copies on eBay or second-hand magic forums by the looks of things. But don’t expect a bargain; a copy of Pure Effect is currently going for nearly £500. Considering its content, one thing’s for certain: I’m never selling mine.