'It felt like such a personal book as it felt like such an achievement to have even attempted it,' she says. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated her award to anyone who suffers from a similar ailment and thinks they will never recover enough to fulfil a dream. Clarke suffers from chronic fatigue, a debilitating condition that has hampered her writing process for nearly two decades. The gap between her first and second novel was caused by illness. The spine remains undamaged.Her win means so much because Piranesi was a novel she never thought she would finish. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Elegant, witty and utterly compelling, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell creates a past world of great mystery and beauty that will hold the reader in thrall until the last page.

Mr Norrell has never conquered his lifelong habits of secrecy, while Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous magic.He becomes fascinated by the shadowy figure of the Raven King, and his heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens, not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear. But the partnership soon turns to rivalry. Together, they dazzle the country with their feats. Jonathan Strange is charming, rich and arrogant. There he meets a brilliant young magician and takes him as a pupil. News spreads of the return of magic to England and, persuaded that he must help the government in the war against Napoleon, Mr Norrell goes to London. Then the reclusive Mr Norrell of Hurtfew Abbey appears and causes the statues of York Cathedral to speak and move. Now, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, he is barely more than a legend, and England, with its mad King and its dashing poets, no longer believes in practical magic. A human child brought up by fairies, the Raven King blended fairy wisdom and human reason to create English magic. The first shall fear me the second shall long to behold me Centuries ago, when magic still existed in England, the greatest magician of them all was the Raven King.

Susanna clarke new book