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One of Reactor Mag's Best Books of 2025
One of Library Journal's Best Books of 2025
A hilarious and surprisingly moving cozy fantasy novel from the best-selling author of Once Upon a Tome.
In a tiny farm on the edge of the miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her tiny, miserable existence. Dividing her time between tolerating her feckless husband, caring for the farm’s strange 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. When Mr. Nagg returns home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she thinks: what harm could a little magic do?
This debut novel by beloved rare bookseller and memoirist Oliver Darkshire reimagines a heroine of Boccaccio’s Decameron in a delightfully deranged world of talking plants, walking corpses, sentient animals, and shape-shifting sorcerers. As Isabella and her grouchy, cat-like companion set off to save the village from an entrepreneurial villain running a goblin-fruit Ponzi scheme, Darkshire’s tale revels in the ancient books and arcane folklore of a new and original kind of enchantment.
A delightful and entertaining story of self-discovery—as well as fungus, capitalism, and sorcery—Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a story for those who can’t help but find magic even in the oddest and most baffling circumstances.
Genre: Fantasy
One of Library Journal's Best Books of 2025
A hilarious and surprisingly moving cozy fantasy novel from the best-selling author of Once Upon a Tome.
In a tiny farm on the edge of the miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her tiny, miserable existence. Dividing her time between tolerating her feckless husband, caring for the farm’s strange 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. When Mr. Nagg returns home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she thinks: what harm could a little magic do?
This debut novel by beloved rare bookseller and memoirist Oliver Darkshire reimagines a heroine of Boccaccio’s Decameron in a delightfully deranged world of talking plants, walking corpses, sentient animals, and shape-shifting sorcerers. As Isabella and her grouchy, cat-like companion set off to save the village from an entrepreneurial villain running a goblin-fruit Ponzi scheme, Darkshire’s tale revels in the ancient books and arcane folklore of a new and original kind of enchantment.
A delightful and entertaining story of self-discovery—as well as fungus, capitalism, and sorcery—Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a story for those who can’t help but find magic even in the oddest and most baffling circumstances.
Genre: Fantasy
Praise for this book
"This book is a delightful modern fairytale full of strangeness and wonder, and no small amount of humour. Oliver Darkshire has done a wonderful job bringing us into his fresh, fantastical world, and it's somewhere you want to stay." - Alice Bell
"I have been longing for fantasy stories with middle-aged heroines, so I was delighted to discover the pragmatic and intelligent Isabella. Oliver Darkshire weaves a vivid story with a humorous, fantastical voice and complicated world-building." - Katy Nyquist
"Witty and wry*, a book filled with untrustworthy herbs, far too much porridge, and the most unusual and compelling explanation for goblins you will ever see.*and punctuated by an egregious number of delightful footnotes." - Caitlin Rozakis
"With more humour than you can shake a homemade apple-tree wand at, and a folkloric world of magic tomes, snarky almost-cats and the twin menaces of goblins and capitalism, Darkshire's story is a bubbling cauldron overflowing with imagination and charm." - Chris Sugden
"I have been longing for fantasy stories with middle-aged heroines, so I was delighted to discover the pragmatic and intelligent Isabella. Oliver Darkshire weaves a vivid story with a humorous, fantastical voice and complicated world-building." - Katy Nyquist
"Witty and wry*, a book filled with untrustworthy herbs, far too much porridge, and the most unusual and compelling explanation for goblins you will ever see.*and punctuated by an egregious number of delightful footnotes." - Caitlin Rozakis
"With more humour than you can shake a homemade apple-tree wand at, and a folkloric world of magic tomes, snarky almost-cats and the twin menaces of goblins and capitalism, Darkshire's story is a bubbling cauldron overflowing with imagination and charm." - Chris Sugden
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