The war magician

I first learned of Jasper Maskelyne on a History Channel documentary. This British magician was born to magicking a family going back for several generations. Early on in WWII he realized that his misdirection and prestidigitation skills could have valuable wartime uses. He repeatedly approached military and government figures hoping to convince them of this and, ultimately, was sent to serve in north Africa—where no one knew what to do with him.

Gradually the benefits of his skills became known, and he performed feats that truly seemed like magic during the war. He and his team created a false harbor to the north of an existing harbor and through lighting, faked destruction, and a whole lot of putting up, taking down, and general show more scrambling, tricked German bombers into making nighttime attacks on the fake harbor, rather than the real one. He created a fake aircraft carrier that prevented German attacks on smaller vessels nearby. With a handful of team members, three small boats, and three barges that were no long useful for their original purpose, he convinced the Nazi army that a major amphibious assault was underway just at the moment a real, land-based assault was beginning far to the north.

You can see why I found him so fascinating.

When I first learned of Jasper Maskelyne, the only "popular" biography of him was David Fisher's The War Magician (1983), which had been out of print for years, had become a collector's item, and was priced well beyond my purchasing power. This year, The War Magician was re-released—apparently a film version of it starring Benedict Cumberbatch is in the works—so I snapped it up now that I could get a copy at a reasonable price.

The War Magician provides an introduction to Maskelyne's military career, but it's of limited value in some ways. First, The War Magician is fiction based on real life, but one doesn't know which parts of the book are fictitious and which are documented fact. Second, the book covers the start of Maskelyne's work with the army in north Africa; he went on to serve on multiple continents, so much of his story isn't included here. Finally, the book is dated in ways that make it less engaging for readers than it might be, containing lines like "The men scattered like Scotsmen at the scent of a bill." Nonetheless, if one is looking for a book about Maskelyne, The War Magician is what's available.

So I read the book, rolling my eyes regularly, and was wowed by Maskelyne's exploits. My hope is that if a film is being made of The War Magician—with Benedict Cumberbatch!—perhaps new biographies accessible for popular reading will be produced. The War Magician is definitely worth a read, but I'm hoping that even better titles are on the horizon. show less

Can the secrets of stage magic (misdirection and deception) be applied to warfare? For professional magician Jasper Maskelyne, the answer was, 'yes'. Finally convincing the British government to give him a chance, Maskelyne conjured up camoflage paint for tanks, moved Alexandria Harbor, made the Suez Canal vanish, and numerous other stunts that read like fiction. There may indeed be some embellishment (Maskelyne was a performer, after all) but many of the basic concepts are based in fact.

There is a lot of discussion on whether or not this book is fact or fiction. I picked it up to read because it was a work of "Non-Fiction". But after reading it I am not sure. The book does have verifiable historical detail. But it is filled with complete conversations of the characters/subjects. It seemed to me to be more of a historical novel. Though I do not think everything in the book is accurate, Most of what he is attributed to have done is plausible.

The War Magician written by David Fisher claims to be a true account of the exploits of the illusionist Jasper Maskelyne during the Second World War. Mr. Maskelyne comes from a long line of magicians. And like his ancestor who used his magic knowledge to help T.E. Lawrence in Arabia show more in WW I, he wanted to do his part in WW II. And so he does. His skills are used to help the British forces in developing new and creative weapons of illusion. Like making the armies look larger then they actually were. To innovations in camouflage, which are very interesting. And these camouflage techniques would take a mind such as Maskelyne had to conceive and execute.

The book makes for very interested reading. And just goes to remind us, that with enough ingenuity and hard work, anything can be accomplished. Regardless if the book is all factual, or if there is some embellishment, it is worth the read. show less