A Discovery of Witches is the kind of book that occupies a curious – and some might even say skilful – place between the pulpy and scholarly. This is story of Diana, a professor-turned-witch who invokes powerful magic upon discovering a manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian library, attracting the attention of a variety of supernatural creatures, including the millennia-old vampire who becomes her forbidden love. A Discovery of Witches balances precariously between literary fiction and the paranormal romance craze that had its heyday circa Edward Cullen’s sparkly-skinned “You’d better hold on tight, spider monkey.”
A Discovery of Witches is the first of three books, known as the All Souls trilogy, which certainly have scholarly origins. Academic and novelist Deborah Harkness specialises in the history of science, medicine, and the occult in the Elizabethan period at the University of Southern California. She has spent time researching at the Bodleian, where she uncovered a lost Elizabethan manuscript of her own, which is sometimes called The Book of Soyga. Who wouldn’t turn such a rare experience into a novel? In the pages of A Discovery of Witches and its sequels, magic spills freely. Shilling-shocker secrets are suspensefully unravelled. Dramatic action sequences ensue. Time travel is involved, because of course it is.
A Discovery of Witches appeals to readers of multiple tastes – slow pacing and historical detail for the more self-consciously literary, woozy romantic fantasy for many more – with enough crossover success to land a significant spot on the New York Times Bestseller list and sell-out print runs. But one gets the feeling that Sky One’s eight-episode television adaptation of A Discovery of Witches will play up the book’s pulpier elements. Perhaps in an effort to fit in with fellow UK broadcasters’ ongoing obsession with crime dramas and psychological thrillers, complete with greyscale cinematography and tense will-they-won’t-they work relationships, the trailer goes straight for the dark thriller vibe. It has a dramatic score and that distinctive brand of made-for-TV CGI. They’ve even thrown some vampire bites and shadowy demons into the series’ overarching interspecies conflict. Why linger on the niche satisfaction of a day’s research in an old library when you can have a tall good-looking vampire lurking grandiosely into every other frame?
The role of protagonist Diana has gone to television first-timer Teresa Palmer, an Australian actress whose previous major credits include war drama Hacksaw Ridge, paranormal rom-com Warm Bodies and critically panned book-to-film adaptation I Am Number Four. Back-up comes in the shape of actor Matthew Goode, who – fresh from Netflix’s acclaimed royal biopic The Crown and 1940s drama-turned-Downton-Abbey-cast-reunion-in-disguise The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – goes all glowering as vampiric male lead Matthew Clairmont. You may also spot the familiar faces of Alex Kingston (ER, Doctor Who), Louise Brealey (Sherlock, Ripper Street), and Lindsay Duncan (an actor with more Oliviers and Tonys than you can shake a stick at) in supporting roles.
It’s also notable that the team behind the series has plenty of women in it, many of them stalwarts of British science fiction and fantasy. They include Sarah Dollard (best known as one of only twelve female writers or co-writers in Doctor Who history), producer Julie Gardner (Da Vinci’s Demons, Torchwood, Doctor Who), and director Alice Troughton (Merlin, The Living and the Dead, and, you guessed it, Doctor Who). With those kind of credentials, this series could be the fantasy you’re looking for. It’s certainly time we got to see what more blockbuster, suspend-your-disbelief projects, led by women from page to screen can do.
Who knows? They just might be able to make some magic.
A Discovery of Witches airs at 9pm on 14th September on Sky One
