James August Black

From James August Black’s Bio in The Times of London, Dec. 20, 2074

James August Black has been restaurant critic for The Times since May 2070.

Before that, Mr. Black had been a contributing cultural correspondent and theater reviewer from 2068 to 2070 and a society reporter for the Mirror from 2062 to 2066.

''He is also the author of “The Sixth World: A Culinary Awakening” (HarperCollins: streaming, 2068: hardcover and paperback, 2069), an examination of the crossroads of magic and cuisine. He has also presented the food history programme ‘A Sweet and Bitter Fancy’ on BBC 2 from 2071-2073 and the documentary ‘A Movable Feast’ on EuroCast Plus in 2074.''

Born at the family home near Pilleth, Radnorshire, Wales on Mar. 17, 2040 to the Hon. Gerald and Lady Vivian Black, Mr. Black read for Applied Spiritualism at Titania College Oxford in 2062, winning the Edward Kelly Summoning Prize and is a member of the New Hellfire Club, London.

The young, cheeky restaurant and food critic James August Black is one of the rising stars of the culinary world, famous largely in the UK and France as a food critic and pundit. A regular face not only in his column ‘Bored of Fair’ in the Times but also as an expert on food-themed documentaries and a regular face on panel shows. His public persona is a bit of a fop and a lovable snob, bringing charm to elitism as only the English upper crust can.

The elitism is, of course, very real, as he comes from the Pilleth Blacks, a powerful mage family from eastern Wales and was educated at all the best schools. Like most of his family, James is known to be magically active, in his case, a certified Summoner.

His identity as an Elf has been a recent source of controversy, with critics claiming that his ‘erasure’ of the elven part of his identity (which he plays down in public) hurts the cause of elf visibility in the UK, a charge that Black has refused to address in the press.