Book of the Month June 2024

Time For Magic

An exploration of the ritual year through the work of the incredibly unique artist and free thinker Jamie Reid. Jamie sadly passed on before the completion of this project but it was safe in the hands of Phillip Carr-Gomm, John Marchant & Stephen Ellcock who selected works from Jamie’s archive and wrote beautifully of his relationship with the eight fold year, and published by the brilliant Watkins.

The book is packed to the brim with inspiring and revolutionary art works. It is a call to arms, a call against apathy and most importantly a call for peace. Jamie had so much to say about how we could work for a better world and this book perfectly encapsulates the world he was striving for. A peaceful, nature loving, creative world where everyone was welcome and respected.

“Time for Magic offers an entrancing overview of Jamie Reid’s incredible art, structured around the eight seasonal festivals of the Wheel of the Year (the equinoxes and solstices plus Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain). Jamie observed these festivals, holding rituals at his allotment in Liverpool, and focused on this theme in his later paintings. This book features key Wheel of the Year artworks as well as famous earlier pieces, including the pre-punk, Situationist-inspired agit-prop and the work he produced for the Sex Pistols. Curator Stephen Ellcock has selected the art and in his own inimitable creative style arranged it into season-themed chapters, as well as finding images of Druidic ceremonies held by Jamie’s great-uncle, Chief Druid George Watson MacGregor Reid.

Stephen Ellcock in conversation with John Marchant introduces Jamie’s life, legacy and love of making trouble; John Marchant provides captions giving deep insight in Jamie’s work; and Philip Carr-Gomm writes about the Wheel of the Year and how it can help us find a new way of being in this era of climate crisis.”