Utterly fascinating biography of an utterly fascinating character, Having previously stopped reading Crowley's own "autohagiography" midway through as I couldn't handle his vain, pompous prose, it's good to be able to read a more rounded biography of a man often far ahead of his time. Now I think I may even end up finishing Crowley's own book after all. ( )

Well, balanced, informative bio. ( )

Of the nearly innummerable Crowley bios I have read, this one may be the best for the curious layperson. Its facts are pretty solid throughout; and it is highly readable and well organized. The author confesses that he doesn't know much about magick, and while that lack does show occasionally, his caution in that department rescues him from technical howlers that plague even such sage treatments as Kaczysnki's Perdurabo. The tone of this book manages to stay in the wide middle ground between the derision of Symonds' Great Beast (a.k.a. King of the Shadow Realm) and the adulation of Suster's Legacy of the Beast. Unfortunately, it looks like its timing sucked: arriving just before Sutin's Do What Thou Wilt, it was mostly washed under by the tide of Crowley bios.