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November 1998 
$29.95 
168pp, Paperback 
270 x 140 mm, colour illusatrations throughout 
ISBN 0-908812-73-6 

The politically, morally, aesthetically and intellectually incorrect Wizard of New Zealand burst into print for the first time. At last people can read about his explosive early days in Cathedral Square, Christchurch; his epic struggles with the census authorities; his spells for rugby matches and his extraordinary success of his rain dances here and abroad.

Read also of his successful campaign against the repainting of telephone boxes, his appointment as Wizard of New Zealand and final success in obtaining a passport in the name of Wizard of New Zealand.

Illustrated with numerous photographs and peppered with hilarious anecdotes.

“… buy the book, read it and give it to somebody. It is a lot of fun and isn’t it neat that we have someone in this world who has no axe to grind, who is there to entertain and enjoy life and more to the point ensure that other people enjoy what he does. This is a book that is worth the read just to read about someone having fun in life.” – The Northern Advocate

“Full of glorious pictures, this book provides a fascinating and entertaining glimpse into the life of one of New Zealand’s most remarkable characters, and would make an ideal gift.” – Dunedin Star

“With the way the book is set out and the Wizard’s unshakeable belief in himself and his causes, My Life as a Miracle makes entertaining reading.” – The Southland Times

“As an autobiography, it is a wonderfully engaging work. The pages are filled with honesty, emotion and anecdotes that make one think… My Life as a Miracle transports the reader on a moving and informative journey of a sincere, hard-working and fun-loving wizard.” – Waikato Times

The Wizard of New Zealand has grown into one of our cultural icons; a figure who rapidly became larger than life after arriving in New Zealand in 1973. After a childhood in wartime England, he served as a pilot officer in the RAF and, since discovering his magical powers, has moved on from his previous life as a university academic, to a new mission as a Living Work of Art.

Part memoir, part myth-busting, wrapped up in a guide for revolutionary change, this book challenges the dogmatic ideologies of the physical and social sciences, and updates them using a series of ‘useful fictions’ based on process philosophy.

More than just a finely-argued polemic, The Fun Revolution is a practical guide for a new generation of revolutionaries.

Following decades of wizardry, oratory and cultural activism, Jack demonstrates how well-designed practical jokes can throw spanners into the mental works of otherwise unstoppable bureaucratic control freaks. He shows how the power of love expressed playfully can overcome the intolerant love of power.

Topics include: the Blob; sending oneself up and raising one’s consciousness by mistake; the use of levity to resolve conflicts between love-based religion and logic-based science; experimenting with a new form of alchemical marriage; advocating a great leap backwards to save the biosphere; and the reappearance of Heaven as a singularity in a postmodern inside-out physical universe.

This book will appeal to those widely-read individuals who are disillusioned by their experience in higher education, but who have not yet lost their native curiosity, scepticism, and sense of humour.

About the Author

Jack was born in London in 1932 and christened Ian Brackenbury Channell. In 1990 he was appointed official Wizard of New Zealand by the Prime Minister, a position he continues to hold. He’s been an RAF Flying Wing Adjutant, a London paper merchant, a major arts festival director, an academic lecturer in sociological theory, and a Living Work of Art. While at the University of New South Wales, Australia, he pioneered the Fun Revolution as a reform movement, leading in 1969 to his being appointed as the first official Wizard in residence at any university. Jack lives in Christchurch, New Zealand where he has been practising wizardry and jousting with bureaucrats since 1974.

The Wizard New Zealand QSM, a true story of a singular man, award winning documentary that follows the life of the first ever man in the world to be appointed by a government as an Official Wizard.

The former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Right Honorable Mike Moore ONZ, in 1990, proclaimed Ian Brackenbury Channell as the Official Wizard of New Zealand and appointed the Wizard to protect the Government of New Zealand.  Mike Moore and many others, all go onto revealing this amazing, fantastic, magical and true story.

The Wizard was born in London, England in 1932,  trained as a Pilot and was a Navigator in the Royal Air Force in 1952, taught English in Iran in 1958 and obtained a double honours in Psychology and Sociology from Leeds in 1963, with participation in the first ever winning team of University Challenge, before becoming the first ever official Wizard in the World and finally honoured in 2009 by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, with the Queen’s Service Medal.

The Wizard highlights that woman cause wars through their shopping habits, points out that governments with Monarchies are more stable, formed his own Army and “Save the Males” Campaign and designed a new and Improved Universe and just “disappears” on Census night.

It was recorded that with his Magic Spells, the Wizard broke five Rain Droughts, both in New Zealand and Australia.