Tony Rossiter looks at the fantasy writer and the world of her wizard apprentice
she began as an illustrator of picture
books before moving on to write and
illustrate books for toddlers and then
chapter books – books for intermediate
readers, generally aged 7 to 10, which
tell the story primarily through prose
but include plentiful illustrations.
However, she found it easier to
make pictures with words rather than
with a paint brush, and her aim was
always to concentrate on writing. The
first book which she both wrote and
illustrated was Monkeys in the Jungle
(1989), a simple 28-page picture
book for the very young. It features
different animals in their natural
environments: parrots in the trees,
penguins on their ice floes, tigers in
the grass, and so on. Many of the
animals are hiding, and children must
discover their whereabouts before
they jump out and say ‘Boo’. She
went on to write several board books
for young children, moving away
from illustrating other people’s books
to write her own. This was a slow
process which took many years to
complete. It culminated in 2005 with
her first fantasy novel Magyk. ‘It was
the first book that really made me
feel something,’ she said in a recent
interview, and its publication gave
her an enormous thrill.Magyk
Magyk (2005) is a fantasy novel for
readers aged 9+. The book’s blurb
sets the scene: The seventh son of the
seventh son, aptly named Septimus
Heap, is stolen the night he is born by
a midwife who pronounces him dead.
That same night, the baby’s father, Silas
Heap, comes across a bundle in the
snow containing a new born girl with
violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless26 NOVEMBER 2019B
est-known for her
bestselling Septimus
Heap series, fantasy
writer Angie Sage is also
author of the Todhunter
Moon trilogy and the Araminta Spook
series. Magyk, her first Septimus Heap
book, was very well reviewed both in
the UK and the US, where the New
York Post recommended it for fans of
Harry Potter.How she began
As a child Angie used to enjoy getting
lost in a book. She loved drawing and
reading about history – ‘as good as time
travel,’ was how she has described it.
He father worked in publishing and
would bring home dummy books with
blank pages, which she used to fill
with her drawings. From an early age
she knew that she wanted to be part
of making books. After leaving school
she first studied medicine, but changed
her mind and went to Art School in
Leicester, where she studied graphic
design and illustration. After collegenewborn into their home, name her
Jenna, and raise her as their own. But
who is this mysterious baby girl, and
what really happened to their beloved
son Septimus?
Magyk and its six sequels follow
the Magykal Heap family – parents
and seven children – through the
trials and tribulations of their life in
The Castle. As the series progresses,
Septimus becomes the apprentice
of the Extraordinary Wizard Marcia
Overstrand, who is head of all the
wizards and lives in the Wizard
Tower. She has a pair of Special
Purple Python-skinned shoes – and
a short temper. Magyk’s opening
paragraph draws us enticingly into
the story: Silas Heap pulled his cloak
tightly around him against the snow.
It had been a long walk through the
Forest, and he was chilled to the bone.
But in his pockets he had the herbs that
Galen, the Physik woman, had given
him for his new baby boy, Septimus,
who had been born earlier that day.
Angie had the character of
Septimus in her head for a long time
before she began to write. She knew
that he was in a strange, hostile world
and that he did not understand who
he really was; but it was the sudden
introduction of the bossy Marcia
that kick-started the story. She has
said that the feeling of the strange,
futuristic world she invented – with
its Castle, Port, Forest, Marshes –
came to her from living in Cornwall.
That world is described in delicious,
humorous detail in Septimus Heap –
The Magykal Papers (2009). Here you
can take a tour of The Ramblings,
where the Heap family live alongside
other wizards and all kinds of riffraff,
and cast an eye over the menu ofANGIE
SAGE
The style & technique of
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