I’VE WRITTEN EARLIER  about a magic friend Lewis Jones who spent many years in his career in Singapore and who I meet at monthly intervals at my home in concert with many other magic aficionados. Once a year year Lewis and his wife Sush, stage what I call a “Curry and Conjuring” day to which they invite a number of friends where we just sit around their home and garden  in Sydenham, talk and argue about magic, with no agenda and no restriction on anything other than a liberal meeting of the  minds.

I’ve done this for a number of years and when Jack Avis and Alex Elmsley were alive they too were part of this gathering and as you would expect much opinion, dogma and revelation results from the assembly which can often last until the early hours of the morning. This year was no exception.

Casually sprawled around his lounge and dining room were well-known mental man Ian Rowland, U.S. import and Circle editor Matt Field,  professional musician and magician Tom Whitestone, magician, Circle curator and leading writer and lecturer on garden design Michael Syme, top professional magician and  successful author Geoffrey Durham, magician, accountant and publisher Don Wyatt,magician, athlete  and vice president of the IBM Singapore ring Enrico Varelli and  his partner Melina, magician, professional hypnotist and legal scholar Martin Taylor, the brightest magical inventor in the magical firmament Angelo Carbone and me, magician and retired international playboy.

Faithfully serviced throughout the day with wine and oriental tit bits,, cakes. fruit etc by Lewis and Sush followed by a magnificent dinner at a twelve feet long table to which the most delectable curries and associated dishes suitably edited for European palates were graciously presented as the perfect accompaniment for the endless conversation which probed every magic nook and cranny arriving at little conclusion.

This may sound flowery but the stimulus and wonderful hospitality offered by Lewis and Sush Jones is for me ( a well known foodie) one of the highlights of the magical social calendar. Many arguments and thoughts were considered but none that will change the course of magic knowledge in the next decade.

Such events, and there are many that are held by magic names around the country are amongst the finest meetings of the minds that are held in the community. To be invited to the Jone’s Curry and Conjuring Sunday is an honour indeed.

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