30 Mythology


72312 THE YARDBIRDS by Alan Clayson This was the band that launched Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page onto the unsuspecting music world and this account looks at the Yardbirds’ rise from the quiet suburbs of South London to rock immortality, five years of frenetic activity and considerable success in the 60s. It then looks at the subsequent careers of the individual members including Jimmy Page’s Led Zeppelin, the Jeff Beck Group, Keith Relf’s Renaissance, the Eighties Yardbirds reformation as Box of Frogs and Jimmy McCarty’s later career as a guru of new age music. 50 photos, 208pp in softback. $22.95 NOW £4


73082 FRENCH TANGOS FOR PIANO by Uri Ayn Rovner


The tango is a ballroom dance of Latin American origin characterised by long pauses and stylised body positions. With full musical scores, this 60 page very large softback will lie flat at the piano or on the music stand and provides arrangements which are romantic using sometimes avant-garde harmonies supporting emotional melodies. They include a Tango Gitano, Sacre Tango and La Paloma and a list is given of the approximate order of playing level for each tango with easiest titles continuing to the more advanced. 64 page softback. £9.95 NOW £4.75


71194 BEATLES FOR SALE by John Blaney We know the songs, the albums and the films, but how did The Beatles and their mercurial manager Brian Epstein end up pioneering so much of what we now recognise as the modern music business? Here is a work of cultural excavation, rock history, and the inner circle who went about promoting, advertising and selling records, playing concerts and selling merchandise, making films and setting up publishing and recording companies. Illus. 288pp in softback. £14.95 NOW £3


MYTHOLOGY


Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember: it didn’t work for the rabbit.


- R. E. Shay


74298 THE MASTER OF THE RINGS by Susan Ang


Subtitled ‘Inside the World of J. R. R. Tolkien’ and beautifully illustrated with line art and woodcuts throughout, here is a look at John Ronald Reuel Tolkien who was born in South Africa on January 3rd 1892 of Saxon extraction. The greatest fantasy writer ever, over 100 million copies of his books have been sold and now he has a new legion of fans thanks to the film versions of The Lord of the Rings. The book looks at what influenced his writing, and the themes that united major works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and gives a detailed guide to who’s who, what’s what and where’s where in Middle-Earth in A-Z quick reference. 176pp in paperback. £5.99 NOW £3


74399 MYTHOLOGY OF THE


AMERICAN NATIONS by David M. Jones and Brian Molyneaux An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Gods, Heroes, Spirits, Sacred Places, Rituals and Ancient Beliefs of the North American Indian, Inuit, Aztec, Inca and Maya Nations. This book is a rich source of information for learning about and understanding the myths and


religions of the indigenous inhabitants of the North American, Mesoamerican and South American cultures and the cataclysmic decline of their civilizations at the hands of the Spanish explorers. The book is divided into three geographical sections and within each section, special illustrated features focus on unifying themes such as Death and Afterlife, Creation Myths, Culture Heroes and Sacred Skies. There are more than 600 entries, arranged alphabetically with mythical features of each culture including tribal histories, specific legends and deities, temples and human sacrifice, astronomical knowledge, land and lore. 256 large pages with over 500 bold colour artworks and illustrations, paperback. ONLY £6


74371 ELEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NATIVE


AMERICANS by Adele Nozedar


Sub-titled ‘The Ultimate A-Z of the Tribes, Symbols and Wisdom of the Native Americans of North America’. The story of the indigenous peoples of North and South America is a harrowing one. The striving for cultural superiority, and the many ways in which that


superiority was demonstrated, has destroyed hundreds of lives, crushed cultures and belief systems, wrecked families and smashed peace to smithereens. Their innate respect for all of nature, and the consequences of that respect, are goals that have a practical as well as a spiritual force. Despite the many privations inflicted upon the Native Americans, their profoundly empathetic underlying nature is as strong as it ever was. This impressive book is a complete A-Z guide to the tribes of both the United States and Canada, their history, culture and religious beliefs and practices, shamanism, sacred sites, the Reservations, wars and leaders, rituals and ceremonies, with descriptions of totem animals and symbols belonging to each clan and maps of tribal areas, ancestors and spirits, altogether a celebration of the Native American spirit and culture, both past and present. A huge 564 paperback pages illustrated in b/w, with maps charting territories and tribal areas, and portraits by a renowned photographer. ONLY £7


74194 MONSTERS, MYTHS AND MYSTERIES by Paul Woodruff


On each lovely coloured artwork is a maze for you to wander through with your pen or pencil as you appreciate the colour, artwork and short description of each mythical creature or place. A tangled tour maze book starring aliens, Atlantis, Baba Yaga (a witch from Russian folktales), Big Foot, black dogs, Camelot, genies, hippogriss, the Loch Ness Monster, sea serpents, phoenix, pixies to unicorns, vampires, werewolves and zombies. Many fantastic places and creatures exist only in myths and legends but here we can set out on a magical adventure with danger lurking in every twist and turn of these mazes. A super puzzle book, 80pp in glowing colour. $5.95 NOW £2


74355 A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE GREEK MYTHS: Gods, Monsters, Heroes and the


Origins of Storytelling by Stephen P. Kershaw In a thrilling account of the superheroes of the ancient world and their modern-day legacy, a classicist points out how, although the Greek myths are thousands of years old, they still live in our


language and imagination. We have the ‘Midas touch’ or an ‘Achilles heel’. We protect our computers from ‘Trojan horses’ and, like Icarus, we sometimes fly too close to the sun. The author retells well-known stories like Jason and the Argonauts and Theseus and the Minotaur, and forgotten ones such as the Birth of the Gods and the Creation of Man and Woman, exploring how their inspiration has remained vital for western culture, from Renaissance painters through the poets of the Great War to the modern myth makers of Hollywood. In fact, from the homecoming of Odysseus and the other heroes after their victory at Troy, to the lives of the Olympian Gods and the legend of Atlantis, the myths of Ancient Greece have formed the bedrock of our storytelling tradition. A thick 531 paperback pages with notes, maps, family trees and a note on names, spellings and dates. £9.99 NOW £4.50


74388 KING ARTHUR: The


Bloody Cup by M. K. Hume Probably every person in the Western World knows that King Arthur dies at the conclusion of this, Volume III of The Chronicles of Arthur, so how, asks the author of the re-telling of the dark legend, can the writer find something unique to say? In this epic third volume, the people of Britain have for many years enjoyed peace and prosperity


under the reign of King Artor and the Union of Kings. Having spurned the despotism of his predecessor, Uther Pendragon, Artor has ruled with a strong sense of duty, goodness and honour. But he is now weakening with age, and the seeds of discontent are sown. Seeking to cleanse the land of Christian belief, dissenters need a symbol with which to legitimise their pagan claims and gather malcontents together into a cohesive weapon. These shadowy, subversive elements elect to use the ancient cup of Bishop Lucius of Glastonbury as a way of fragmenting Artor’s hard-won kingdom. First, they must lay their hands on the relic and, in so doing, unleash a force for evil from which murder and violent mayhem ensue. However, it emerges that the ultimate threat to Artor’s rule lies far closer to home. He is to be betrayed by one of his own kin. 533 paperback pages with maps, plans, dramatis personae, glossary of place names. £12.99 NOW £4.50


73186 LORE OF THE PLAYGROUND: The


Children’s World Then and Now by Steve Roud Here is an eye-opener of a book that traces traditions, debunks cherished myths and proves that all that has changed is the ‘bogeyman’ who is responsible for the perceived decline in children’s play. In 1903 it was assumed to be ‘modern developments’. By the 1920s and 1930s commentators were pointing the finger at the cinema’s baleful influence. TV was the main culprit in the 1950s and 1960s and, in the 1980s and 1990s, video games. Today it is sophisticated computer games. Children’s games are still going strong, and he can prove it! 560 paperback pages, illus. £8.99 NOW £3


73408 GHOSTLY BEASTS by Joan Aiken The stories and poems in this collection were written over a span of more than 60 years by the much-loved children’s author. Two stories are published for the first time, The Dogs, the Cats and the Mice and The Dancers. Also includes a selection of Aiken’s poems, never before in print. A girl was hurt in a street accident and her dog was found at all the different entrances, in turn, of the hospital where she was taken - even though it was not in the town where she lived, but another one miles away. 144 paperback pages 25cm by 19cm, line drawings and watercolours. £7.99 NOW £3


71693 BEOWULF: A Tale of Blood, Heat, and Ashes retold by Nicky Raven illustrated by John Howe


The ancient Anglo-Saxon poem is here re-told while the tale is enhanced by the renowned fantasy artist. In the original story, the once-prosperous land of the Danes stands in ruins, its people terrified, its king, Hrothgar, on the point of being defeated by Grendel, a monster more hideous and violent even than those in legends. Here, the story is taken up by Wiglaf, a young warrior entrusted with the task of finding the incomparable fighter Beowulf, who is the Danes’ last hope against the creature. The battles of intrepid warriors against Grendel and the other terrifying Seahags, are enough to chill the blood. 84 pages, 23.5cm x 27cm, map and gory paintings.


$18.99 NOW £5.50 73572 PROPHECIES: 4,000 Years of


Prophets: Visionaries and Predictions by Tony Allan


In the ancient world, Sybilla was a mythical woman who could foretell the future, and her cult developed into numerous sybils throughout the empire. Most famous was the underground Cumaean Sybil, visited by the hero of Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid. The Delphic oracle with its deliberately ambiguous messages was the Greek equivalent. Another mouthpiece of the eternal was St John the Divine who wrote the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, probably drawing on the fire of Rome in 67 A.D. and the sack of Jerusalem. Dreams and premonitions in our own time have focused on disasters such as the Aberfan landslide which killed classes of schoolchildren and which a number of those close to the tragedy claimed to have foreseen. Professional seers include Nostradamus and the fictional Merlin. 282pp. £10.99 NOW £5


52779 UNCANNY STORIES by May Sinclair Sinclair combines the traditional ghost story with the discoveries of Freud and Einstein. A female telepath is forced to face the consequences of her actions... The victim of a violent murder has the last laugh on his assailant... An amateur philosopher discovers that there is more to Heaven than meets the eye. ‘The Intercessor’ (1911) is Sinclair’s powerful story of childhood and abandoned love, a tale whose intensity compares with that of the Brontës. Paperback of 1923 original. 216pp. ONLY £4


59986 BROTHERS GRIMM: The Complete


Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and his brother Wilhelm (1786- 1859) were philologists and folklorists. The brothers rediscovered a host of fairy tales telling of princes and princesses in their castles, witches in their towers and forests, of giants and dwarfs, of fabulous animals and dark deeds. Together with the well-known tales of ‘Rapunzel’, ‘The Goose Girl’, Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and ‘Snow White’, there are the darker tales such as ‘Death’s Messengers’ which deserve to be better known. Coloured edges with matching endpapers, deluxe hardback binding in rich red cloth with gold tooling and inset colour plate on front cover. With b/w illustrations by Arthur Rackham. 848 pages. ONLY £12


72194 LORE OF THE LAND: A Guide to England’s Legends from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys


by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson In this gripping, county-by-county compendium of headless horsemen, unplumbed pools, immured adulteresses and screaming skulls, the authors evoke an England spooked by spooks, tantalised by hidden treasure and beleaguered by apparently non-existent bells. However, this is no fairy tale. The whole collection is penned, according to ‘The Times’, ‘with that beguiling mixture: a storyteller’s enthusiasm and a scholar’s detachment’. We could not have expressed it better ourselves. From King Arthur to Sweeney Todd, this magnificent guide will take you on a magical journey through England’s legendary past. 918 paperback pages with illustrations in b/w and colour. £20 NOW £6.50


72211 PUFFIN BOOK OF MAGICAL INDIAN MYTHS by Anita Nair


Brings alive a fantastic world of demons, wise sages, demonic asuras, irresistible river deities, arrogant kings, wayward gods and brave princes who inhabit 50 stories from Indian mythology. One tale is about Sage Daksha, who got his daughters married to the moon but later, in a fit of rage, cursed the moon with consumption, which made it wax and wane. 182 pages 21cm x 26cm with over 100 enchanting, brightly coloured illus. £12.99 NOW £4


72228 WISE WORDS AND COUNTRY WAYS: Weather Lore by Ruth Binney


Probably the best known of these is ‘Red Sky at Night, Shepherd’s Delight’ but there are many, many more fascinating old-fashioned proverbs, sayings and superstitions relating to the patterns of the weather which have influenced the lives of sailors, farmers, gardeners and people whose livelihoods and personal safety depended on what the elements might have in store. Combining old weather lore with new technological know-how. 208 pages, illus. £9.99 NOW £3.50


72774 LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY by Zachary Mason


Nearly three millennia ago, Homer told the story of the ten-year journey of Odysseus. Here is a radical and thrilling retelling of classical legend, in which Homer’s linear narrative is exploded. Here are fragments of alternative and contradictory retakes and outtakes of the same familiar stories - the Trojan Horse, the Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens - all broken up and put together into new shapes. Turned inside-out, these tales become glosses, mirrors and mazes that explore and re-examine Odysseus’ journey and see it afresh in all its ambition, sadness and futility. 228 pages. £12.99 NOW £4


72978 ELEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE CELTS by Rodney Castleden


Historians have changed their views on the Celts in recent years and this user friendly A-Z of everything Celtic brings the reader up to date. The encyclopedia section is divided into People and Lifestyle, Celtic Places, Celtic Religion, Myths, Legends and Stories, and finally Symbols, Ideas and Archetypes. The last chapter covers the Celtic Twilight and Revival, with discussions of Sir Walter Scott, the Golden Dawn and 21st century concepts of “Celticness”. The book’s explanation of the location of Camelot makes fascinating reading. Other topics include King Arthur, the Celtic Cross, Stonehenge, Tintagel, the Cerne Giant, the Grail Quest, the History of Taliesin, Hooded Dwarves, the Doomed Rider, shapeshifting and much else. 543pp, paperback, line drawings.


£12.99 NOW £5.50 NATURE


The giraffe must get up at six in the morning if it wants to have its breakfast in its stomach by nine.


- Samuel Butler


74093 GARDEN BIRD CONFIDENTIAL: Discover the Hidden World of Garden


Birds by Dominic Couzens Watching the interactions of our garden birds as they come to your bird table, fatballs, peanut holders or good old-fashioned crusts chucked on the lawn is fascinating enough, but what happens when they have eaten their fill? Here are


full profiles of the most popular garden species, 60 in total, which includes superb colour photos (often full- page) and colour artworks of each alongside Latin name, identification rules, shape and character, song, habitat, preferred food, habits in the garden, breeding, migration, distribution and abundance, all of which make identification a doddle, but what makes this book so special is the “Confidential” section that follows. Here we learn the most amazing things and you may never look at your avian mates in quite the same way. For instance, the “butter wouldn’t melt” House Sparrow is known to commit infanticide if bereaved during the breeding season, the cacophony that breaks out in a rookery in late spring is very likely to be series of sexual assaults on incubating females by hormonally-crazed males, and a Jay collects around 3,000 acorns every autumn, secreting its hoard in over 200 different hiding places around its territory. Keep one by your lounge window, 192pp softback, 7½”×10". £14.99 NOW £5


74295 LIFE ON THE WING: A Bird Chronicle from the Pages of The Times by Derwent May


In an informative and captivating chronicle of a year in the life of Britain’s birds, Derwent May employs his scientific knowledge and wealth of experience to describe vividly and poetically what he has observed of avian habits and manners, revealing just what it feels like to be an avid


birdwatcher. As he does so, he draws the reader in, to experience with him the excitement of fresh discoveries, the peace and contentment that birds can bring, and the comedy to be found, both in the behaviour of birds and the human response to them. From the lonely Essex marshes to the remote bird-haunted islands of Grassholm and Fair Isle and along English lanes and rolling cornfields, he traces a wealth of birdlife in a great variety of environments. Here are dainty avocets prancing along the seashore, panic-stricken waxwings frenziedly gobbling berries, barking barnacle geese, soaring skylarks and many, many more. 237 pages with line drawings. £15.99 NOW £5


74416 STORY OF FOSSILS:


In Search of Vanished Worlds by Yvette Gayrard-Valy The tale of the discovery in August 1900, in Siberia, of a spectacularly well-preserved mammoth, completely entombed in the earth and ice, its massive body frozen solid. Many myths were engendered by fossils: the bones of one-eyed giants, magical rams’


horns, showers of amber from heaven! However, as the study of fossils became a science, the reality uncovered by palaeontologists was found to be even more astonishing than the myths. Here was an earth of immense age, changes in oceans and climates and the existence of the awesome dinosaurs. This gripping book reveals the tasks and tools of palaeontology, the wondrous world of microfossils, and much more. Fossil hunters are still making revolutionary finds which, with the aid of modern technology, continue to rewrite the history of life on earth. 191 paperback pages teeming with illus in colour, sepia/w and b/w with timeline. £7.95 NOW £4


74302 ON EXTINCTION: How We Became Estranged from Nature


by Melanie Challenger Inspired by a visit to the magnificent Natural History Museum in London, Melanie Challenger, planned three “peregrinations”, journeys around the world that would take in some


of the world’s remotest outposts. Tracing the links between human activity and environmental collapse and, indeed, whether the two are as simply linked as has been portrayed, she ponders on what has been termed the Anthropocene Age, that period of geological time defined by unnatural radioactive isotopes, chemical pollutants, increased levels of carbon dioxide and other gases and the premature extinction of other species due to these and other human-induced factors. Starting in Penwith, Cornwall, she visits South Georgia, Antarctica and the Falklands, then Yorkshire to Manhattan via Baffin Island. From disused tin mines to rusting whaling stations and lost ways of life, such as those of the Inuit, and soon has more to contemplate. It is not just species of animals and plants that are rendered extinct by human activity. A magnificent pot-pourri of ecology, biology, philosophy and anthropology, Challenger questions our emotional responses to extinction. 32 b/w photos, 330pp paperback. £15 NOW £5


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