Jon Kaneko-James is an author and researcher based in London. His works have included children’s books, articles on popular history topics, genre fiction, and historical research.
Jon’s particular research topic is historic belief in the supernatural: how people believed, what they believed and the criteria for experience. Jon has also given a number of lectures on the Supernatural in Early Modern theatre, putting the supernatural elements of 16th and 17th century plays in the context that contemporary audiences would have understood them. Jon’s current research project is examining the influence of fairy imagery on the witch trials, with a particular interest in a specific trial at the English port-town of Rye.
Jon has presented his research at ASSAP’s Seriously Possessed conference, hosted at London Goldsmiths’ University. He has also presented at the ASSAP Seriously Enchanted conference, and the Museum of Witchcraft’s Curses conference in 2017.
Jon released his first full-length history title, Shakespeare’s Audiences and the Supernatural, this year — looking at how 16th and 17th century citizens understood the supernatural, and supernatural events as they formed a part of the political and everyday landscape. It’s available from Amazon (including Kindle) and direct from the publisher.
On the fiction front Jon has a book out: A Dark Neon Dying, an Esoteric Hermetic Cyberpunk Noir thriller. You can read more about it at Other Side Books.
Jon’s favourite book is Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest. He’s rather fond of tea.
Hei Jon, nice to read your article on Crowley and Secret service. I am preparing a screenplay about Crowley as secret agent, could you sugegst me something to read? ARticols, books and so on? Thanks a lot.
Elena Fortune
Hello Elena,
I should start by admitting that I took that article as a freelance writing job, so I wouldn’t call myself an authority on Crowley… however, when I wrote the article, I found by far the most balanced and skillfully written account of his possible spying was Tobias Churton, Aleister Crowley: The Biography. I also used Martin Booth, A Magick Life: A Biography of Aleister Crowley and I *think* I used both of Richard Kaczynski’s books, The Weiser Concise Guide to Aleister Crowley and Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley.
There were a few scholarly papers too, but I’m afraid time has wiped them from my memory, and the journalistic nature of the article means I didn’t record them very well.
Good luck with your screenplay. From what I’ve seen, Crowley was certainly spying in the Weimar Republic between wars, and he *TRIED* to spy in both WWI and WWII, although there’s no evidence to show he was successful. He’s an interesting man. If you’re interested in seeing other dramatisations and fictive versions of him, if you haven’t already read it, I recommend Somerset Maugham, The Magician for a fairly true to life attempt, and Bafflegab Production’s comedy radio show The Scaryfiers for a more pulpy, comedic portrayal.
Good luck with things!
Jon