Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil

In a tiny, miserable farm on the edge of the tiny, miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her equally tiny and miserable existence. Dividing her time between tormenting her feckless husband, inadequately caring for the farm’s strange collection of animals, cooking up ‘scrunge’, and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella can’t help but think that there might be something more to life. So, while she’s initially aghast when Mr. Nagg returns to the farm with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she soon starts to think: what harm could a little magic do?

Thus begins Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil, a novel of sentient depressed farm animals, a talking pot of basil, wizards, and an entrepreneurial villain running a goblin fruit Ponzi scheme. Cosy, full of wit and Pratchett-ian footnotes, Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a ultimately a story about claiming a new life and finding oneself. And also, goblins, capitalism, and sorcery.