Conrad Blackwood: Darkness and Light

Before the Institute

Eleven-year-old Conrad Blackwood enjoys his Uncle Ned's stories about goblins without expecting to meet one. Then a visit to a London library brings him face to face with Aleister Crowley. Conrad witnesses something he cannot explain and comes home with a book called The Good Wizard and the Darkness.

It is 1947. Conrad lives with his mother in Chertsey, still carrying the loss of his father in the war and worrying about Ned's health. The possibility that magic is real gives his questions a new urgency. He keeps reading, testing what he has been told and looking for the man who first showed him what might be possible.

Growing up with the occult

Darkness and Light follows Conrad from childhood into young adulthood, long before he leads the Blackwood Institute for Paranormal Investigations. His search for knowledge grows alongside his family loyalties and experience of loss. What he learns about magic changes the way he understands the people around him and the choices open to him.

A starting point for new readers

Begin here if you want to meet Conrad before the Institute's cases. This is a historical supernatural story about a boy learning how much of the world he has yet to understand. Familiarity with Strange Tales of the Unexplained is optional; listeners can return to the early experiences of the man who will lead its investigations.