The House of Doctor Dee | Peter Ackroyd

While this is an interesting story: a man inherits an old house in London, one that formerly belonged to Doctor John Dee. Living in it, he feels he is becoming part of the house's mysterious past; what is really fascinating is the true story behind the fiction.

He was the mathematician, philosopher and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth. However, He caused uproar in 16th-century Europe with his 'angelic conversations' - and he inspired the character of Prospero in William Shakespeare's The Tempest and the main character in Christopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus.

In 1582, Dee met Edward Talbot - also known as John Kelly - a necromancer and alchemist. Dee, already convinced that the angels had chosen him as their messenger, showed Talbot a shewstone, or crystal ball. He proved a natural and began to relay angelic messages to Dee, who wrote down every detail with growing excitement. In 1583, Dee and Kelley produced what was to be their most lasting legacy - the Liber Logaeth, or Book of Enoch. This comprised a language dictated by the angels, made up of a series of squares containing letters and numbers. The angels told Dee that, when complete, it would offer him perfect truth from God.

His search though became darker and darker; fleeing to Poland he and his chum were given shelter by Emperor Rudolph II on the proviso they found the Philosopher's Stone. This finally failed, and just before journeying back to England, in a final attempt to persuade the angles to reveal their secrets, Dee and Kelley swapped wives - a damnable sin. He died in 1608 without completing the Enochian language.