The following review of The Dedalus Book Of The Occult is taken from The Independent (UK – Friday 9 January 2004)…
The Dedalus Book Of The Occult ed Bary [sic.] Lachman Dedalus £9.99 (378pp) Brisk, workmanlike and lucid, this is a survey of “adventurous souls” whose output was the reverse: “often crazy, sometimes hilarious and, on occasion, clearly insane”. Lachman’s gallery of occultists ranges from the hypnotist Mesmer (1734-1815), whose salon had “an orgy-like atmosphere”, through Goethe and Balzac (who achieved enlightenment by drinking an estimated 50,000 cups of coffee), to Algernon Blackwood, an early TV celebrity who wrote the original Starlight Express, and Aleister Crowley – aka The Great Beast 666. CH