Showing titles in Customs & Traditions

In a radical new story about the birth of our species, The Origin of Language argues that it was not hunting, fighting, or tool-making that forced early humans to speak, but the inescapable need to care for our children. Journeying to the dawn of Homo sapiens, evolutionary biologist Madeleine...

Natalie Haynes – writer and presenter of Radio 4's Stands Up for the Classics and bestselling author of Pandora's Jar – takes a razor-sharp romp through the monsters we know, love and fear from the fable stories of the ancient world. Whether it's snaky Echidna – half-nymph, half snake and...

A fascinating guide to the monsters that are part of our collective psyche, from the host of the hit podcast Lore. They live in shadows - deep in the forest, late in the night, in the dark recesses of our minds. They're spoken of in stories and superstitions, relics of an unenlightened age, old wives' tales, passed down through generations. And yet no matter how wary and jaded we have become, as individuals or as a society, a part of us remains vulnerable to them.

Brought to you by Penguin. As featured on The Today Programme 'Wondering and wonderful. The nature book of the year.' JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL ______________________________ Come to the forest, sit by the fireside and listen to intoxicating song, as Sam Lee tells the story of the nightingale. Every...

For more than 25 years Noriko Morishita has studied and practised the intricate rules of the famous Japanese Tea Ceremony, trying to master its complexities in order to find inner peace. In this vivid account of her experience of the universal trials and triumphs of adulthood, Morishita connects the core tenets of this ancient art with leading a fulfilling life, showing how we too may use mindfulness to achieve happiness.

When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches...

A practical guide to the ancient magical tradition of Russian sorcery and Eastern Slavic magical rites Offers step-by-step instructions for more than 300 spells, incantations, charms, amulets, and practical rituals for love, career success, protection, healing, divination, communicating with...

Rebel Folklore gathers 50 of the darkest and most complicated folktale characters from around the world, showing readers why we should care about the rebels and misfits of ancient stories. Folktales were humble stories, passed down generations by those on the fringes of society: women, peasants...

“Strikingly dramatic, yet simple and unrestrained . . . an unusual and intensely interesting book richly packed with strange information.” —New York Times Book Review Based on Zora Neale Hurston’s personal experiences in Haiti and Jamaica, where she participated as an initiate rather...

The phenomenal Danish bestseller: a transporting, inspirational story of home, of endings, rebirth and new beginnings In the darkness of winter on the first day of the year, a woman in Denmark is making a list. She plans to set out and see all of the country's butterfly species in a single...

The Holy Grail, the kingdom of Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table, and the magical sword Excalibur are all key ingredients of the legends surrounding King Arthur. But who was he really, where did he come from, and how much of what we read about him in stories that date back to the Dark Ages is true? So far, historians have failed to show that King Arthur really existed at all, and for a good reason—they have been looking in the wrong place. In this book, Alistair Moffat shatters all existing assumptions about Britain's most enigmatic hero.

Step into a world of shadowy forests, deep lakes, and icy mountain peaks where the lines between reality and myth blur. Cryptids and Cryptozoology: Spine-Chilling Encounters with Bigfoot, the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, and Other Legendary Beasts is your guide to exploring the unexplainable. Whether you're a sceptic or a devoted believer, this thrilling compendium promises to immerse you in the strange, the mysterious, and the terrifying.

Here are the incredible true stories of some of the mortals who achieved notoriety in history and folklore through horrible means. Monsters of this sort - serial killers, desperate criminals and socially mobile people with much darker double lives - are, in fact, quite real...including H. H. Holmes, the infamous Chicago serial killer; William Brodie, the Edinburgh criminal mastermind who inspired The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; and Bela Kiss, a Hungarian tinsmith with a most disturbing hobby: collecting women in gasoline drums.

Meet the matriarchs of Filipino myth – defiant goddesses, powerful witches, terrifying shapeshifters – and their real-life counterparts, as Carla Montemayor journeys to discover her own ancestry and the stories of her people. When Carla Montemayor discovers that her great-great grandmother...

One of America's leading anthropolgists offers solutions to the perplexing question of why people behave the way they do. Why do Hindus worship cows? Why do Jews and Moslems refuse to eat pork? Why did so many people in post-medieval Europe believe in witches? Marvin Harris answers these and...

Uncover the immersive ancient history of Celtic folklore, where forgotten gods and mysterious druids rule the Iron Age. Perfect for your evening wind-down or an atmospheric daily commute, this vivid fireside narrative breathes life into vanished pantheons. Traverse the shimmering borders of the...

21st-Century Yokel explores the way we can be tied inescapably to landscape, whether we like it or not, often through our family and our past. It's not quite a nature book, not quite a humour book, not quite a family memoir, not quite folklore, not quite social history, not quite a collection of...

Ancient, time-tested wisdom: Okinawa, Japan, is a tiny, tiny island south of the Japanese mainland where people live their life's purpose every day. How is it possible for so many to live each day in such meaningful ways? The Okinawan concept of Ikigai. Magical reality come to life: David Michiels stuttered severely well into his adulthood. In clinical terms, his stutter was difficult to treat. But David started to work in a liquor store. Before long, his focus turned to one specific section of the sales floor: the scotch section.

The past is coming back. The ancient myths that were told, are now available in an audiobook format. Listen to the narration, and you will find yourself amazed by the intricate details of age-old civilizations like that of the Celts, the Vikings, the Greeks, and others. This combination of books focuses on several separate societies that have a long, well-known history of believing in multiple gods, goddesses, crazy creatures we now suppose are fiction, and a myriad of other interesting superstitious or valuable assumptions.

A “lively, wide-ranging” (TheTimes, UK)cultural history of the goddess of love Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, rising out of a froth of white foam. But long before the ancient Greeks conceived of this voluptuous blonde, she existed as an early spirit of fertility on the...