What is a Diablerie? A Diablerie is a unique stereo card with demonic scenes of the underworld, designed for stereoscopic viewers in Paris in the mid 19thcentury. A stereo card is a 3-D view printed on paper – they were first sold to the public in England and France around 1853, becoming hugely popular throughout the mid to late 1850s. Between them Brian, Denis and Paula have now discovered all 182 of the Diableries cards in existence and have brought them to the 21st century to be viewed through a modern day stereoscope, designed by Brian May, that he named an Owl.

The three authors present the world with their extraordinary full set of Diablerie stereo cards (originally published from the 1860s to the 1890s) which they have collected and studied over the years. By looking through the stereoscope, supplied with the book, you will be transported to an underworld of devils, satyrs and skeletons, rich in imagery and storytelling. The three authors explore the magic of stereo photography and the story behind the image on each card is interpreted. Never before had these secrets been revealed – for instance, clues to the conflicts in France in a period of great unrest, suffering, shame and suppression – a period which, even in French schools, is seldom part of the curriculum. The Diableries are impudent, funny, sad, riotously inventive, satirical and dangerously seditious.