The day that changed Paul Daniels’ life: The magician, 75, on how he discovered his calling inside a dusty old book on a soggy family holiday in North Yorkshire..
When I was 11, in the summer holidays just before I went to grammar school, I came across a book that would change my life.
Mum, Dad, my brother Trevor and I were staying in a country holiday cottage for a couple of weeks in North Yorkshire. That summer the weather wasn’t good and I was forced to look at whatever books were lying around the place.
I was an avid reader and discovered an old tome on Victorian pastimes which covered lots of subjects, and in one chapter, magic tricks. I read it carefully, as it contained an intriguing mathematical magic trick. Laboriously I copied it out by hand, practised it a few times then showed it to my family, who were quite impressed.
The bug had bitten. When we got home to South Bank, Middlesbrough, I borrowed more books on the subject from the library and my interest grew. I liked entertaining and performing, so from then on at family gatherings I’d do magic tricks. I had my first taste of performing on stage at 14, doing a spot in a revue for the Normanby Road Methodist Chapel.
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