Most of the people who’ll end up reading this book will already be familiar with the name Kenneth Grant - probably through reading his magickal ‘non fiction’ books such as ‘Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God’, ‘Nightside of Eden’ and ‘Outside The Circles of Time’. In fact, it is unlikely that the general public would find themselves drawn here, due to the low profile Mr Grant has kept outside the realms of the initiated. Unlike writers such as Colin Wilson or Robert Turner, Mr Grant makes few concessions to the ‘layman’. His books tend, rather, to be very specialised, sometimes difficult to read, and incredibly condensed.

I would suggest (and I’m sorry if it’s uncharitable), that as many of his admirers as his detractors often don’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

None of this is Kenneth Grant’s fault. In fact, in the preface to his first book ‘The Magical Revival’ (which I’d recommend as one of the clearest and most common sense introductions to the field) he states quite clearly that the books are constructed in a manner so as to suggest rather than clearly state. To borrow an old surrealist cliché, ‘to put the visible at the service of the invisible’.

These sentiments are repeated in each and every book at some stage along the way, so there is very little excuse for the considerable number of lunatics running around out there who have taken it all a little too literally. Thus are the seeds of madness sown. What has been missed is that since his earlier works, Mr Grant’s books have been increasingly less about magick, and more and more ‘magickal books’. Umberto Eco’s term ‘metafiction’ might be suitable. And the current volume is just such a beast.

Against The Light is a very odd book, written in a very unique and idiosyncratic manner. Unlike Mr Grant’s other books, the prose is very straightforward, lucid and free from specialised ‘gematria’. At times it is whimsical, humorous and deeply personal.

The ‘story’ (which soon spirals out of sight) concerns a family ‘grimoire’ which the narrator finds with the help of a ‘skryer’. The grimoire is then spirited away and the narrator and his uncle, Phineas Black, go in search of it through a realm of visions, hallucinations and dreams. The imagery becomes progressively surreal and fetishistic (in the magical sense), and we are taken on many a self-referential loop-de-loop, before being touched down once more in relatively familiar territory.

Mr Grant refers to the oneiric qualities of surrealism repeatedly, but it’s worth pointing out that Mr Grant’s form of surrealism is more akin to Dali’s grotesqueries than to the French literary movement of that name - in that he describes images, rather than surrenders to a flow of free-association ‘auditory’ impressions. His manner of description reminded me at times of Henry Miller’s attempts in his book ‘Black Spring’.

At times suggestive of Machen, sometimes of JG Ballard (in its looped perception depiction of ‘inner space’) the book manages to totally avoid pigeon-holing. This could be the access point for Mr Grant to reach a wider more mainstream audience - if he so wanted (but I suspect it doesn’t interest him overmuch). It’s a pity his fiction has taken so long to achieve publication as it sheds a lot of light on his other works, and I’m sure many puzzled readers would have been only too glad of it at times.

‘Against The Light’ is the first in a planned series of fictional books by Mr Grant, as well as a bridging point between his last book ‘Outer Gateways’ and his next one ‘The Ninth Arch’. Maybe it will also provide a bridge between Mr Grant’s too-often locked inner realm and the one that the rest of us inhabit by consensus.