The Spell

Why do we, as humans, believe what we believe?

How do we make sense of our history, our politics, of the world today and our place in it?

How viable is modern liberal democracy in our polarising world?

How do our leaders make decisions, whether it’s to alleviate poverty or to fight a global pandemic?

The answers to these questions are driven by the grand narratives that dominate human thought the world over. Without us even realising it. Narratives that emanate from the human need to navigate an overwhelming and contradictory world. By making stories to frame the chaos.

By storytelling itself. In The Spell, David Buckham and Robyn Wilkinson set out to make sense of how we make sense. They explore the development of Western thinking from Ancient Greece via the Enlightenment through to the modern day, in particular our ongoing wrestle with the divine and the knowable. They home in on specific stories we have come to tell along the way, from Henry VIII to Lawrence of Arabia to Tarzan. From the Irish Troubles to Vietnam to famine in Ethiopia. From Malthus to Superman to Apocalypse Now.

This is a sweeping page-turning account that illustrates how the world, in all its chaotic derangement, can be made intelligible through the lens of historical storytelling. This is “The Spell” – essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how the stories we tell shape the world we live in.

“A magisterial account of the history of Western civilisation through science, philosophy, economics and the soul quest of humankind. The book succeeds splendidly.” – Professor William Gumede, Wits University

David Buckham is the founder and CEO of Monocle, a management consulting firm based in Johannesburg. Robyn Wilkinson, his colleague, is an industry writer with a focus on history and financial markets. They both hold master’s degrees in English and are the co-authors of the bestselling The End of Money and The Age of Menace / Unequal. David is also the author of Orthogonal Thinking, which has been long listed for the Sunday Times Literary Awards 2025.