There's an old fashioned quality to the way Gaiman writes his stories, but not such that it makes them dated. Perhaps it's an air of nostalgia to them, a reminder of something that seems to have gone missing from our lives in recent years. We can't quite put our finger on what it is exactly, but reading his stories seems to fill an emptiness that you didn't even know you had.
Part of it is the sense of whimsy that drifts though each story; the wistful air of knowing that the innocence that allows these stories to exist is quite alien to our world. Galaad is no more likely to ride up and park his horse in one of our kitchen gardens then Superman is of dropping by for coffee. The balance I'd say lies in the title of the collection, M Is For Magic.
Just as in Bradbury's day, when he compiled R Is For Rocket, space seemed remote and inaccessible, today magic has all but vanished and doesn't exist outside of books and movies. In movies we know that it's all special effects so magic has been reduced to technology, taking away the mystery and the whiff of danger.
The only place we really find any magic at all is in the minds of a few writers who remember what it was like to pretend and imagine what if… What if you could buy the Holy Grail in a thrift shop? Wouldn't it follow that Sir Galaad of the Knights of the Round Table would show up at your door looking for it?
M Is For Magic is published by Harper Collins and is available at various online and regular retailers around the world. A little magic in a life never hurt anyone, and M Is For Magic is one of the best sources you're likely to find for a while. Buy it for a child you love; better yet, buy two copies, one of them just for you.
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