Well, it's from 20 years ago now, so maybe not. Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell is just what you always hope recent(ish) fantasy will be, and almost never is. (The magic does not feel like you're being asked to memorize the rules to a video game you'll never play, and the big moments do not read like the stage directions in an action movie.)

• I loved the way Clarke balanced the tone – stuffy old British gentlemen meeting chaotic, anti-rational fairy people/places must have been very hard to get right.