Time for Magic is a new book that provides an overview of the extraordinary last paintings of Jamie Reid – yes, the same Jamie Reid who designed the iconic, era-defining artwork for the Sex Pistols. These works are structured around the eight seasonal festivals of the Wheel of the Year (the equinoxes and solstices plus Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain). 

Jamie, who died in 2023, observed these festivals, holding rituals at his allotment in Liverpool, and focused on this theme in his later paintings. This book features key Wheel of the Year artworks as well as famous earlier pieces, including the pre-punk, Situationist-inspired agit-prop and the work he produced for the Sex Pistols. Curator Stephen Ellcock has selected the art and in his own inimitable creative style arranged it into season-themed chapters, as well as finding images of Druidic ceremonies held by Jamie’s great-uncle, Chief Druid George Watson MacGregor Reid.

Stephen Ellcock in conversation with John Marchant introduces Jamie’s life, legacy and love of making trouble; John Marchant provides captions giving deep insight in Jamie’s work; and Philip Carr-Gomm writes about the Wheel of the Year and how it can help us find a new way of being in this era of climate crisis.