Welcome to a Very Short Introduction soapbox. A short talk lasting 15 minutes from an expert in the field. The talk is free and takes place in the Blackwell book tent.

Owen Davies does not attempt to provide a concluding definition of magic: it is beyond simple definition. Instead the professor of social history at the University of Hertfordshire explores the many ways in which magic, as an idea and a practice, has been understood and employed over the millennia.

Sponsored by Oxford University Press