Ellis Stanyon was another magician who owed his initiation into the art to Professor Hoffman. As well as performing, he was a dealer in magical apparatus and books and published a periodical Stanyon’s Magic which ran from 1900 to 1920.

This is the first of several books he published on instruction in conjuring. It was followed by a book dedicated to card magic and Stanyon’s Serial Lessons in Conjuring, a multipart course in magic. Aimed at the amateur, practising magic as a hobby is emphasised as ‘it is a wholesome and moral one’. Nevertheless, Stanyon hopes to have presented something new with his volume to amuse his ‘confrères and the public alike’.