Showing titles in Customs & Traditions

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 essays, but a bit of all six. It contains owls, badgers, ponies, beavers, otters, bats, bees, scarecrows, dogs, ghosts and yes, even a few cats. What emerges from this are themes that are broader, bigger and more definitive.

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...

The Real Norse Myths—Simplified, Structured, and Stranger Than You Think. Think Norse mythology is just Thor’s hammer, Valhalla, and horned helmets? That’s the Hollywood version. The real myths are darker. Bloodier. Stranger. And far more unforgettable. Most people encounter Norse mythology in fragments—Marvel movies, random podcasts, half-remembered classroom lectures. The result? A confusing blur of gods, giants, monsters, and names you can’t pronounce. This audiobook fixes that.

The Loch Ness monster: a creature that should have died out with the dinosaurs or a legend built on hoaxes and wishful thinking? Sir Peter Scott, internationally renowned naturalist and president of the World Wildlife Fund, was convinced that the monster existed. So were senior scientists at London's Natural History Museum and Chicago University; they lost their jobs because they refused to renounce their belief in the creature.

Myth is our wild way of telling the truth, of sharing stories that have our living earth speaking through them. There is an old insistence that we each have a twin we know nothing about. A wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our energy with them. This story is a quest to find and court our wild twin, for they have something important to tell us. If there was something we were here to do in our few, brief years, we can be sure that the wild twin is holding the key.

The author of such acclaimed books as The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth discusses the primitive roots of mythology, examining them in light of the most recent discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology.

Explore the world through its most unlikely creatures: Cryptozoology, the study of hidden, monstrous, and legendary animals, is truly the art of discovering the unknown. Richard Freeman, Zoological Director of Centre for Fortean Zoology, has explored the corners of the five continents on the search for creatures that many people believe are non-existent. In this book, he shares the exciting stories of his investigations of the Yeti, Mongolian Deathworm, Loch Ness Monster, Orang-Pendak, Ninki-Naka, and more.

Hidden in the margins of history books, classical literature, and thousands of years of stories, myths and legends, through to contemporary literature, TV and film, there is a diverse and other-worldly super community of queer heroes to discover, learn from, and celebrate. Queer Heroes of Myth & Legend brings to life characters who are romantic, brave, mysterious, and always fantastical. It is a magnificent celebration of queerness through the ages in all its legendary glory.

When Ellie Chapman inherits a dilapidated farm, perched high up on the cliffs above the English Channel, it’s not long before she decides to launch a wedding business. After all, with a mum whose cake baking skills rival Mary Berry’s, and the perfect venue, it seems the natural choice. 

She might be a total novice when it comes to the first wedding, but with a bride who leaves everything until the last minute, a vengeful ex-fiancé of her own, and the world’s naughtiest donkey...What could possibly go wrong?

Throughout history, humans have sought power and knowledge from spirits. Learning how to conjure, communicate, and negotiate with these unseen powers is one of the keys to success in magic. This book will teach you different ways of interacting with spirits, from offerings and invitations to forceful conjurations. With these tools in hand, you can work with your spirit allies to achieve any goal, from protection, to wealth, to vast knowledge. Consorting with Spirits shares proper training necessary for calling and conversing with spirits, and more.

Tales of the Elders of Ireland (Acallam na Senórach) represents the largest literary text surviving from 12th-century Ireland, the most comprehensive early collection of Fenian stories and poetry. Three parallel worlds interact: the contemporary Christian world of Saint Patrick with his scribes, clerics, occasional angels, and souls rescued from Hell; the earlier pagan world of the ancient, giant Fenians and an array of Irish kings; and the timeless Otherworld, peopled by ever-young shape-shifting fairies.

Finally sort out who’s who in Greek mythology—from gods, goddesses, heroes, monsters, and everyone in between! Greek mythology continues to appear in popular movies and books today but have you ever wondered about where these characters started out? Discover the origins of your favorite...

'A masterly achievement, a work of imaginative grandeur and complete artistic control' Ian McEwan 'Brilliant and unputdownable' Salman Rushdie He's a trickster, a player, a jester. His handshake's like a pact with the devil, his smile like a crack in the clouds; he's watching you now and he's...

Daniel Allison’s new collection dives into the deep veins of Scottish folklore. Witches gather in a Glen Shiel forest. A fisherman fights monsters on an Orkney shore. Singing cats hold a forest funeral while hares dance in the hall of a king. These stories were once told late at night in hunting camps and fishing huts. They are the lore of a people who knew the Otherworld was always close and often to be feared.

There are fewer grey seals in the world than endangered African elephants, but the British Isles host almost half of this global population. Every year these charismatic animals, with their expressive eyes and whiskers more sensitive than our fingertips, haul out on our shores to breed and raise...

Listeners of this book will gain a clear understanding of what makes the Japanese, and their society, tick.

When Paul Auster was asked to join NPR's Weekend All Things Considered program to tell stories, he turned the proposition on its head: he would let the stories come to him. He invited listeners to submit brief, true-life anecdotes about events that touched their lives. And so the National Story...

Take a step – if you dare – into the shadows and the story of our primal fascination with fear, terror, and the macabre. This comprehensive and creepy audio guide that explores the dark and eerie landscapes of horror down the centuries and across the world – from prehistoric death rituals...

Brought to you by Penguin. What is the correct way to queue at the bar? And why exactly do the English say sorry so much? No one makes such a fuss about manners quite as much as the UK, yet in a fast-changing world, no one can seem to agree on precisely what the ‘done thing’ is, either...

One of our great decoders of human connection chronicles the astonishing rise of new rituals around the world—and offers a road map for restoring togetherness with gatherings you’ll love Since time immemorial, humans have turned to ritual to connect us in periods of change. Until today...