Name: NARROW / BROADLY
Brand: THE NEAT REVIEW
SKU: NARROWBROADLYstandard
Price: 80.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

NARROW / BROADLY

Alexander Hansford

£80.00

Written by

Alexander Hansford

Isbn

978-1-7394499-7-7

Pages

124 + 24

Dimensions

157mm x 188mm x 19mm

Weight

0.55 kg

NARROW / BROADLY is a unique two-book set. This is a brand new, deeply fooling take on one of the strongest card tricks in history: any card at any number.

BROADLY: An Index is an archival index of 54 influential playing card designs, productions between 1872 and 1918, printed to scale. This book hides a self-contained miracle.

NARROW: A Method explains the secret workings of the BROADLY book as well as a devastating take on the card at number plot from 1876.

These books will allow you to divine thought-of playing cards immediately and with certainty, from across the room, or from another room entirely. No memory work necessary. Follow with a completely hands-off card at number routine.

The BROADLY book will become a satisfyingly strange oracle object in your home.

Available in a limited edition of x200 Standard Edition sets, and x80 cased Collector's Editions.

(At MAGIC Live, people thought the decks we used for the routines were marked decks. They are not. Use any deck you have lying around the house: new or old; complete deck or with cards missing; rare or common)

Ships in 2-weeks time.

With these books, you will confidently divine multiple thought-of cards from across the room, and finish with a playful and profound card at number effect.

There is no fishing, no shiners, no forces, no outs, no progressive anagrams, no guess-work. No pack of cards necessary, you can just use the BROADLY book if you like.

NARROW / BROADLY is printed on art papers from Germany, Italy and England

Each set is numbered and hand-assembled in the UK.

Research & refinement for the routine and prototyping of these books took place between April 2025 and March 2026.

Printing and production for these editions was then completed across Leipzig, London & California over the course of five months.

BROADLY features lithography, foil-stamping, sewn-binding and is printed using a spot-process throughout in Pantone ink.

NARROW is a Leporello book construction and features an iridescent faux iguana-skin paper cover, housed in a letterpress tuck box with blind emboss.

Details

54 archival playing card designs from 1876 to 1918, printed in a spot-process throughout.

Contents

01 The BROADLY Book disguise
02 THE narrow METHOD
03 Card at number
04 Book Test-esque
05 Example Effect 01
06 Example Effect 02

The BROADLY book sits on your coffee table or bookshelf as a reference book for anyone interested in cards, magic or design. The book is exactly what it appears to be — a document of playing card designs, one per page, from the past 150 years. No amount of scrutiny or handling will give away its secret.

At a moment's notice, the BROADLY book can be used for a series of disarming, unique and utterly confounding displays of mind-reading.

BROADLY is not a "Magic Colouring Book" or blow-book method. The book is completely normal and examinable. This is a new item in card magic & book tests.

You never look at the faces of any of the cards for this routine.

Your friend mixes the deck on the table in front of them, then picks any card. They can change their minds, swapping until happy. They bury this card in the deck, completely at random, completely under their control, then pocket the deck.

You take the BROADLY index book back from your friend. You talk of CARTOMANCY, fortune-telling using a pack of cards. Divination.

You show a number of designs from the index and begin a 'reading' of your friend's card using a back design from 1890. From this, you confidently divine the card they chose in full. No fishing. All hits. You always know precisely the card they are thinking of.

To finish: every back design in the book corresponds to a different playing card. This one, from which you've done the divination, from 1890, IS your friend's freely chosen card, the Ten of Clubs. Each card in the book is numbered. #1 to #52.

"Anna, your card is design #16 in this book... I wonder what the 16th card is in the deck you just shuffled?"

Your friend picks up and deals. The 16th card in the deck they just shuffled is their card.

Your friend picks up and leafs through the BROADLY book, learning a bit about the history of few rare playing card designs, the years they were produced, the original names, and the production companies that undertook the printing. Your friend then looks into the book afresh and settles somewhere near the middle. They hold the book up to their chest: they are the only person to see anything on the pages. They remember the card they see, or can flip through to another if they prefer. They find a card that speaks to them. From across the room, you immediately and confidently divine their card.

 Have your friend think of any card. They then mix a deck of cards on the table. Somehow, after their shuffle, their thought-of card is in the exact position in the deck as the BROADLY book predicts.  This is the only match in the deck.

Invite a friend to leave the room, taking the BROADLY book with them. They go out of the room so as not to be influenced by you (the magician). They flip through the book till they find a card that speaks to them, then return thinking of that card and a number. Meanwhile, you organise a group to collectively shuffle the deck. Your friend returns to the room. They name their thought of card and number. Their card is now at their number in the shuffled deck.

Contributor(s)

Alexander Hansford

Alexander Hansford founded THE NEAT REVIEW in 2019, after printing a string of limited-run artist books to accompany talks he was giving to magicians worldwide. Across a 14-country lecture tour, from Vienna & Sydney to Beirut & Los Angeles, his books were met with a unique reverence by the magic community. Alexander's long-running collaboration with Derren Brown spans Derren's live theatre shows, including Olivier Award-winning “Underground,” “Secret” and “Showman,” to consulting on the card magic pieces for Derren's “Only Human,” which comes to London’s West-End in late-2026.

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