Sian Pattenden - The Magical Peppers and the Great Vanishing Act

The Troupe

Dr Pompkins - Totality Magic Welcome once more to Dr Pompkins – Totality Magic (expanded deluxe limited edition with velour cover and gold lettering). Here you will find the best tricks and the most up-to-date advice. Since I last saw you, I have been trotting round the globe, performing at least four tricks a night to an eager audience. But it has taken its toll on my body. My legs are creaking, the old joints are barking and I also believe that I may be slightly deaf. Reader, I am getting old, so I want you to go forth, take the Pompkins baton, and perform the tricks included inside this book – at home, to friends and relatives, at school – and let’s see that the bubble of magic never bursts. In all totality,

Chapter 1 - Magic Shed

TRICK: Möbius Magic

Health and Safety

Chapter 2 - Henry J. Henry

TRICK: Magic Bottle

The Library

Chapter 3 - Big Ruffled Collars

TRICK: Into Thin Air

Voice and Tone, Volume and Accents

Chapter 4 - The Crystal Skull

TRICK: The Disappearing Coin

Sewing and Handicraft

Chapter 5 - Optical Illusion

TRICK: Magic Cloak

Noises from the Crowd

Chapter 6 - Plump Velvet Cushion

TRICK: Mind Magic Spook Tumbler

Spookery

Chapter 7 - Warthogs

TRICK: Eggs from a Hat

Organisation

Chapter 8 - One Smells a Rat

TRICK: Penny and Coat Hanger Trick

Confusion

Chapter 9 - The Hideaway

TRICK: Church Steeple

Animals

Chapter 10 - Mrs Celia Nutkins

TRICK: Magic Sachet

Leaflet-eering

Chapter 11 - Bonce Security™ in Action

TRICK: Haunted Pendulum

Our Finale

Chapter 12 - A Few Hundred Doves and a Prince

Copyright

About the Publisher

Welcome once more to Dr Pompkins – Totality Magic (expanded deluxe limited edition with velour cover and gold lettering).

Here you will find the best tricks and the most up-to-date advice. Since I last saw you, I have been trotting round the globe, performing at least four tricks a night to an eager audience. But it has taken its toll on my body. My legs are creaking, the old joints are barking and I also believe that I may be slightly deaf. Reader, I am getting old, so I want you to go forth, take the Pompkins baton, and perform the tricks included inside this book – at home, to friends and relatives, at school – and let’s see that the bubble of magic never bursts.

In all totality,

errr-flapp!

Esmé Pepper saw the letter arrive first, landing loudly on the doormat of the house at Highwood Road. It was addressed to Uncle Potty, but there was no clue as to the sender. The postmark was smudged and the address was printed, not handwritten. Esmé scratched her right ear and began to worry. She hoped it was not the letter that had been threatened by the local council.

Kerrr-phoooow!

The sound of a small explosion coming from the garden made Esmé start. Her twin brother, Monty, and her uncle Potty, a professional magician, were outside, busy creating new magic tricks. Esmé put the letter in her trouser pocket and ran out to the recently fitted magic shed that Potty had been using over the last few weeks. Potty was standing alone, covered in soot. Only minutes ago, the shed had sported its clean, watertight roof. Now there were pieces of charred wood all over the grass and the entire roof was gone.

“Problem?” asked Esmé.

“Nothing that can’t be fixed,” answered Potty brightly.

“Where’s Monty?”

“Here,” came a voice, and Esmé looked up to see her brother, happily dangling upside down from a tree by his ankles. “I don’t think we got it quite right, Uncle Potty.”

“I’ll go and get the ladder,” said Esmé, rushing to the hall cupboard.

Twenty minutes later, a puzzled Montague Pepper was sitting on the grass, trying to work out what had gone wrong.

“We’ve spent two long weeks trying to make the shed disappear in the style of Nigel Copperfield,” he worried. “And all we’ve done is blow up the roof.”

“It will happen,” said Potty. “We just need to consult Dr Pompkins – Totality Magic again.”

“Do you think Mr Copperfield reads Dr Pompkins?” asked Monty.

“Oh yes,” said Potty, sitting down to join him. “We all do. It’s our bible.”

Esmé sat down with them. “Do you really think you can make the shed disappear?” she asked. “What props did you use for the trick?”

“A fire extinguisher, a piece of curtain, twenty-four packs of playing cards and a can of lemonade,” replied Potty. “I think the lemonade might have been the issue, don’t you?”

“Surely,” said Esmé, “the issue was with the fire extinguisher. Has it been safety checked? I think Mum and Dad have had it for ages.”

Both Monty and Potty looked at each other. “Oh, so that’s what it was,” Potty said, turning to Esmé. “You know, I really hadn’t thought about that until you mentioned it, Esmé, dear. Or maybe there were too many packs of cards.”

Sensible Esmé gave Potty a knowing look. Surely he knew playing cards had never made anything explode in the whole history of the world. Ever.

Esmé wondered if the neighbours might complain about the exploding shed, which reminded her of the letter that was still in her pocket.

“You’ve had something through the post,” she said, handing the envelope to Potty, whose normally pinkish face turned white in an instant.

“Could it be…” he asked out loud, his one eyebrow furrowed deep.

Monty trembled. Esmé frowned.

“... from the council?” asked Potty, trying to open the letter without his hands shaking too much. “I don’t know what I will do if my wonderful shed is shut down. I will have nowhere to create my tricks in peace.”

*

Uncle Potty had first hit upon the idea of a magic shed four weeks earlier. It would be a place of his own where he could try out and experiment with his tricks. So when Mr and Mrs Pepper had said he could build it in their garden, he was ecstatic. Monty would be on standby to help him at any time. It was perfect.

Once it was decided, Potty and the Pepper twins got a bus to the nearest garden centre and spent almost two hours deliberating on the best shed for the job. Some had heating, one came fitted with a plunge pool and another doubled as a noodle stall for rock festivals. In the end, Potty had plumped for a traditional shed with a sturdy front door and had it delivered the next day.

Esmé and Monty were both thrilled. Surely this was the solution to the problems associated with Potty practising in the house – no more baked beans on the living-room carpet, no more flooded bathrooms or tripping over wands on the stairs.

And yet... Esmé noticed that even in his own shed, Potty could not help but make either a lot of noise or a lot of mess. He managed to break the door off its hinges on the first day with an energetic silk scarf trick. On the second day, he annoyed the neighbours with a badly played trumpet solo, which he claimed was for an act involving the magic of music. Two local cats joined him and howled in unison, causing the woman down the road to ring the police to complain about the “Lady Gaga Tribute Act”. When Potty tried to make the shed magically transform into an elephant, the noise was such that Esmé had to put her foot down. No more elephants.