by John Wanstall

As Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast 666, waits for death in a shabby Hastings boarding house, he remembers the object that brought his ruin upon him with mixed feelings. A legendary yew wand, crafted by the Druids of Stonehenge, has destroyed him - and has allowed him to perform a service for his country in her greatest hour of need. The wand carries ruin along with it, from the bazaars of Cairo and the fashionable occultism of the 1920s to war-torn Germany - to the hands of Hitler himself - and the catacombs of the Vatican. Witches, wizards and satanists compete for the ancient wand, but the power it holds doesn't often work to the user's advantage, and the havoc it wreaks will change the world. John Wanstall has written and photographed for the UK media for forty years. He began his career with the cinema newsreel Movietonews, moving into TV filming and directing for the BBC and Britain's independent television stations. Desiring his own enterprise, he opened a news and television agency feeding material to TV and national daily and Sunday newspapers. He moved to Asia twelve years ago to lecture for local media and universities and to write independently.