Salford Masonic Hall has a notice board – it is in the entrance hallway, facing the men's toilets, at the back of the building, through the car park – on which visitors can learn how many freemasons there are in East Lancashire. Gone are the old days of secret networks and conspiratorial fraternities that guaranteed the success of many small businesses as capitalism developed; now the message to the public is one of transparency and goodwill in post-industrial cities like Manchester. And more secrets will be revealed on Tuesday evenings, for this is where the Manchester Circle of Magicians gets together to perform tricks and then show how they are done.

This circle was formed after splitting from the Order of the Magi and, unlike most other groups of magicians in the UK – the most prestigious being the Magic Circle – it does not require people to audition to join; instead, prospective members, it says on the website, ‘will simply be asked if they are seriously interested in magic’. The Manchester circle fights for its status – to be recognised as having members who are ‘real magicians’ – and has carved out a respectable space in the myriad of organisations that practice and protect magic. There are sometimes references to ‘jealous idiots’ who claim that there are no ‘real’ magicians who are members, and the key dividing line is between ‘the lay man’ outside and members who can recognise that there is a magic effect, and then ‘he is no lay person and entitled to find out how things work’.