Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil

A Novel

Oliver Darkshire

$58.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Miscellaneous
13 May 2025

In a tiny farm on the edge of the miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her tiny, miserable existence. Dividing her time between tolerating her feckless husband, caring for the farm’s strange animals, cooking up “scrunge,” and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella can’t help but think that there might be something more to life. When Mr. Nagg returns home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she thinks: what harm could a little magic do?

This debut novel by beloved rare bookseller and memoirist Oliver Darkshire reimagines a heroine of Boccaccio’s Decameron in a delightfully deranged world of talking plants, walking corpses, sentient animals, and shape-shifting sorcerers. As Isabella and her grouchy, cat-like companion set off to save the village from an entrepreneurial villain running a goblin-fruit Ponzi scheme, Darkshire’s tale revels in the ancient books and arcane folklore of a new and original kind of enchantment.

A delightful and entertaining story of self-discovery—as well as fungus, capitalism, and sorcery—Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a story for those who can’t help but find magic even in the oddest and most baffling circumstances.

By: Oliver Darkshire
Imprint: Miscellaneous
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 218mm, Width: 145mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 341g
ISBN: 9781324105916
ISBN 10: 1324105917
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 13 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Oliver Darkshire (@DeathByBadger) is the author of Once Upon a Tome, his memoir about being an antiquarian bookseller at Henry Sotheran Ltd. He lives in Manchester, England, with his husband and his neglectfully curated collection of books.

Reviews for Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil: A Novel

""With more humour than you can shake a homemade apple-tree wand at, and a folkloric world of magic tomes, snarky almost-cats and the twin menaces of goblins and capitalism, Darkshire’s story is a bubbling cauldron overflowing with imagination and charm."" -- Chris Sugden, creator of Victoriocity and co-author of High Vaultage