I must’ve been around nine or ten years old when the Harry Potter phenomenon took hold of me. One day my older brother had handed me a tattered copy of The Philosopher’s Stone and told me I had to read it. Naturally, I ignored his advice for a good few months before curiosity got the better of me. Within days I was hooked. I would stay up well past my bed time, pouring over the pages with a torch and hiding under the sheets so my parents wouldn’t see the glow of light below my bedroom door.

At 24 years old, I’m still an avid reader but despite the pull quotes on books telling me ‘I won’t be able to put this one down’, I can’t say I’ve ever been as immersed in another fantasy novel. I assumed the magic of make-believe had worn off with my entry into adulthood, until I came across fine art photographer Gary Nicholls aka The Digital Plastic Surgeon and his creation The Imaginarium.

Admittedly, it’s not exactly a novel. It’s a meticulously crafted, tome of a book that tells a fantastical steampunk story through both words and fine art images. The story follows fictional character Eva and her journey from ruination to salvation, saving the world from a powerful nemesis. But the real difference between fantasy phenomenons such as Harry Potter and this story is the bridge between fantasy and reality. The story is fictional but the cast of 150 steampunks featured in the book are very real.

For the uninitiated, steampunk is a ‘sub-genre’ of science fiction. Though the most striking aspect of the genre is the fashion (think futuristic Dickensian), at the centre of the ethos is a sense of escapism. The people you see in the story are receptionists, firefighters, and bankers by day…steampunks by night. It’s a kind of double life, made all the more exciting by the costumes and pseudonyms they adorn.

The part of Eva is played by Julie, who is an artist that works with metal in real life, while her partner Peter plays the other main part of Dr William Percival Stockdale. But take Scarlett Butterfly — although the character is a figment of Hannah Spring’s imagination, the name and persona is also used in her real life job as a performer. Sometimes, it’s a struggle to keep up with what’s real and fantasy, who’s a character or an actor, but blurring the lines between the concrete and intangible is half the fun of steampunk.

Though the first book of The Imaginarium trilogy is complete now, the fantasy doesn’t end there for the steampunks involved. Harry, Hermione, and Ron only exist inside the pages of the J.K. Rowling’s novels, but there’s something magical about the fact you could bump into Eva Lovelace or Dr William Percival Stockdale in real life. And, despite my ripe old age and the mild scepticism which comes with adulthood, the way Gary Nicholls has quite literally brought his fantasy to life has given me a reason to believe again.

Check it out here: http://g-n-p.co.uk/