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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Myth & legend told as fiction
The people of Tyrone have the reputation for having 'open hearts
and a desire to please' and their folk tales are as varied as their
landscape. There are the tales of the amazing feats of the giant
Finn McCool and the derring-do of the Red Hand of Ulster as well as
the dramatic story of Half-Hung MacNaughton and the hilarious tale
of Dixon from Dungannon and his meeting with royalty. All these
stories and more are featured in this collection of tales which
will take you on an oral tour across the country from the Sperrin
Mountains in the west to the flat peatlands of the east.
Spine-tingling tales that will keep you on the edge of your seat!
This chilling collection of scary stories will keep you awake for
hours! Psychological horrors, disturbing dramas, and gruesome
ghosts compose this compendium of confessions made in the dead of
night. From vampires and a monkey paw to an unstoppable heart and
haunting apparitions, anecdotes of supernatural terror will have
you turning pages long past the witching hour. Allow famous authors
such as Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Henry James, Washington
Irving, and more to prey upon your emotions and peace of mind at
slumber parties and camping trips, or anytime you want to end the
night with a delightful fright!
'Diverting... pleasurable... entertaining' New York Times 'Relevant
and fresh... [Good Omens] still has a lot to say about the world'
Empire 'Even if you're very familiar with the original novel, this
is a different experience... so damned charming and quirky that it
feels like a must' Starburst Neil Gaiman's glorious reinvention of
the iconic bestseller Good Omens, adapted from the internationally
beloved novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, launched on
Amazon Prime Video this year to great acclaim. Soon to be shown on
the BBC, the series is written and show-run by Neil himself and
stars David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm and Miranda
Richardson, to name but a few. Before he died, Terry Pratchett
asked Neil Gaiman to make a television series of the
internationally beloved novel they wrote together about the end of
the world. What followed was almost... ineffable. Over six glorious
episodes, Neil brought an angel, Aziraphale, and a demon, Crowley,
(the only things standing between us and the inevitable Armageddon)
to life in some of the most extraordinary television ever made.
Here you will find the scripts that Neil wrote, containing much
that is new and revelatory and even several scenes throughout that
never made the final cut. For the very first time, this edition
collects all the missing bits - from a certain Other Four Horsemen
to a little demonic shopping trip - and reveals the secrets of the
show, which, by its very nature, is known to ask for the
impossible. Step backstage and see the magic for yourself. **This
edition of The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script
Book contains an introduction by Neil Gaiman about bringing Good
Omens to the screen and all cut scenes**
The new historical novel from Philippa Gregory, the Number One bestselling author of Tidelands and Dark Tides.
The spellbinding Fairmile series continues as the fiercely independent Alinor and her family find themselves entangled in palace intrigue, political upheaval, and life-changing secrets in seventeenth-century England.
It is 1685, England is on the brink of a renewed civil war against the Stuart kings and many families are bitterly divided. Ned Ferryman cannot persuade his sister Alinor that he is right to return from America with his Pokanoket servant Rowan to join the rebel army. Instead, Alinor has been coaxed by the manipulative Livia to save the queen from the coming siege. The rewards are life-changing: the family could return to their beloved Tidelands, and Alinor could rule where she was once lower than a servant.
Alinor's son, Rob, is determined to stay clear of the war, but when he and his nephew set out to free Ned from execution for treason and Rowan from a convict deportation to Barbados, they find themselves enmeshed in the creation of an imposter Prince of Wales - a surrogate baby to the queen.
From the last battle in the desolate Somerset Levels to the hidden caves on the slave island of Barbados, this third volume of an epic story follows a family from one end of the empire to another, to find a new dawn in a world which is opening up before them with greater rewards and dangers than ever before.
WINNER OF THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD
FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL 'Clever, wickedly fun . . . with an excellent
balance of humour and heart. I loved it' S. A. Chakraborty, author
of The City of Brass Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha'arawi is the
youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments
and Supernatural Entities, she's certainly not a rookie, especially
after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer. So
when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the
most famous men in history, Al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto
the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world fifty years ago when he
opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before
vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be Al-Jahiz,
returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His
dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of
Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage. Alongside
her Ministry colleagues and a familiar person from her past, Agent
Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore
peace to the city - or face the possibility he could be exactly who
he seems . . . P. Djeli Clark is the winner of the Nebula, Locus,
and Alex Awards and has been shortlisted for the Hugo Award.
First ever publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's final writings on
Middle-earth, covering a wide range of subjects and perfect for
those who have read and enjoyed The Silmarillion, The Lord of the
Rings, Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-earth, and want
to learn more about Tolkien's magnificent world. It is well known
that J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937 and The Lord of
the Rings in 1954-5. What may be less known is that he continued to
write about Middle-earth in the decades that followed, right up
until the years before his death in 1973. For him, Middle-earth was
part of an entire world to be explored, and the writings in The
Nature of Middle-earth reveal the journeys that he took as he
sought to better understand his unique creation. From sweeping
themes as complex and profound as the metaphysics of Elvish
immortality and reincarnation, and the Powers of the Valar, to the
more earth-bound subjects of the lands and beasts of Numenor, the
geography of the Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor, and even who
had beards! This new collection, which has been edited by Carl F
Hostetter, one of the world's leading Tolkien experts, is a
veritable treasure-trove offering readers a chance to peer over
Professor Tolkien's shoulder at the very moment of discovery: and
on every page, Middle-earth is once again brought to extraordinary
life.
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Season of Storms
(Paperback)
Andrzej Sapkowski; Translated by David French
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R495
R406
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Save R89 (18%)
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The Concluding Part of the Epic Viking Fantasy Trilogy ALL SHALL
PERISH The great wolf howls for Ragnarok to begin. The half-giant
Einer leads an army of the dead to clash with the golden shields of
Asgard. The nornir tie and retie their threads, as Loki's and
Odin's schemes unfold... and unravel. For not even cunning gods and
giants see every part of the web. As the survivors of the burned
village of Ash-hill converge on the final battle on Ida's Plain,
only two are truly free to choose their paths and prevent the
annihilation of the nine worlds: a storyteller who holds all
destinies in his hands, and a shieldmaiden with no destiny at all.
Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with
the spoils of an endless war--including the women of Troy themselves.
They await a fair wind for the Aegean.
It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam
lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension,
camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that
held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface and new
suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.
Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis,
formerly Achilles's mistress, now belonging to his companion Alcimus,
quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can,
with Priam's aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced
soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.
What with religious wars, piracy on the high seas, global plagues
and a looming oil shortage, it's not so far-fetched to imagine a
medieval world of the near future. And this is exactly what Russell
Celyn Jones has done in this arresting retelling of the
centuries-old Welsh Mabinogion myth, Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed. Pwyll
finds his inherited status hard to bear and is never sure how he is
drawn into murdering his future wife's fiance, losing his son and
switching beds with the king of the underworld in a bizarrely
upside down world where surfing and sailing are perfect freedom but
you need a horse to get home again down the M4. Breathing life into
this ancient story and retelling it in modern fictional form,
Russell Celyn Jones swops the magical for the psychological, the
courtly for the post-feminist and goes back to Swansea bay to
complete some unfinished business. New Stories from the Mabinogion
is an exciting series of contemporary novels by leading authors,
reworking ancient Celtic myth cycles.The first two stories are
published in October 2009.Authors so far commissioned are Owen
Sheers, Niall Griffiths, Russell Celyn Jones and Gwyneth Lewis. The
eleven stories in the Mabinogion are diverse medieval Welsh tales
taken from two fourteenth-century manuscripts collating a much
earlier oral tradition. They were first translated into English in
the nineteenth century. They bring us Celtic mythology, a history
of the Island of Britain seen through the eyes of medieval Wales,
and include the first appearance in literature of King Arthur - but
tell tales that stretch way beyond the boundaries of contemporary
Wales. There is enchantment and shape-shifting, conflict,
peacemaking, love, betrayal. A wife conjured out of flowers is
punished for unfaithfulness by being turned into an owl,Arthur and
his knights chase a magical wild boar and its piglets from Ireland,
across south Wales to Cornwall, a prince changes places with the
king of the underworld for a year - Each author has chosen a story
to reinvent and retell for their own reasons and in their own way:
creating fresh, contemporary tales which speak to us today, while
tapping into a vigorous source of stories still flowing just
beneath the surface of our culture.
This new selection of myths offers a broad insight into the nature
and lifestyle of the ancestral lands of the Native American tribes
that once stretched from the tip of Alaska, down to the Bay of
Mexico. Hundreds of languages, with traditions and folkore, grew
independently across the continent, flourishing in deserts,
mountains and lush valleys of a vast land. The loss of such ancient
traditions is a reminder of the damage humans can wreak through
ignorance, desperation and greed, as settlers from Europe swept
imperiously across the newly discovered, but long-populated lands
of the so-called New World. From 'The Great Deeds of Michabo' to
'The Legend of Hiawatha', from trickster creator-deities, heroes
and supernatural beings to epic voyages and an affinity with
animals, there is so much to discover in this comprehensive new
book. It's the latest addition to Flame Tree's Epic Tales series of
deluxe anthologies and brings together a thoughtful selection of
myths and tales from across the ancient plains of North America.
Escape to the ocean with the entrancing, unforgettable winner of
the Costa Book of the Year - as read on BBC Radio 4. On a quiet
day, near the Caribbean island of Black Conch, a mermaid raises her
barnacled head from the flat grey sea. She is attracted by David, a
fisherman waiting for a catch, singing to himself with his guitar.
Aycayia the mermaid has been living in the vast ocean all alone for
centuries. When Aycayia is caught and dragged ashore by American
tourists, David rescues her with the aim of putting her back in the
ocean. But it is soon clear that the mermaid is already
transforming into a woman. This is the story of their love affair,
of an island and of the great wide sea. 'Mesmerising' Maggie
O'Farrell author of The Marriage Portrait 'A unique talent'
Bernadine Evaristo author of Girl, Women, Other 'Not your standard
mermaid' Margaret Atwood author of The Testaments VINTAGE EARTH is
a series of books that reveals our ever-changing relationship with
the environment. These are stories old and young, set in worlds
real or imagined, that allow us to explore our connection to the
natural world. Transformative, wild, surprising and essential,
these novels take on the most urgent story of our times.
In fierce, textured voices, the women of Ovid's Metamorphoses claim
their stories and challenge the power of myth I am the home of this
story. After thousands of years of other people's tellings, of all
these different bridges, of words gotten wrong, I'll tell it
myself. Seductresses and she-monsters, nymphs and demi-goddesses,
populate the famous myths of Ovid's Metamorphoses. But what happens
when the story of the chase comes in the voice of the woman fleeing
her rape? When the beloved coolly returns the seducer's gaze? When
tales of monstrous transfiguration are sung by those transformed?
In voices both mythic and modern, Wake, Siren revisits each account
of love, loss, rape, revenge, and change. It lays bare the violence
that undergirds and lurks in the heart of Ovid's narratives,
stories that helped build and perpetuate the distorted portrayal of
women across centuries of art and literature. Drawing on the
rhythms of epic poetry and alt rock, of everyday speech and folk
song, of fireside whisperings and therapy sessions, Nina
MacLaughlin, the acclaimed author of Hammer Head, recovers what is
lost when the stories of women are told and translated by men. She
breathes new life into these fraught and well-loved myths.
Their Wildest Safari Dream by Suzanne Merchant x Returning home to
a dream come true? Stepping into the African sun is a reminder of
the only place zoologist Anna ever called home. And seeing
unrequited love Jack again sets her temperature soaring. With a
fiercely shielded heart, Jack's focus has always been the Themba
game reserve, but he's never forgotten Anna. Their chemistry is
electrifying...but will it be enough to make Anna stay?
Cinderella's Second Chance in Paris by Michele Renae Who said
happy-ever-afters only happen once? Widow Viviane is ready to start
over, and refurbishing a beautiful Parisian conservatory is the
perfect way. But owner brooding billionaire Rezin has different
ideas! Having lost his wife in a tragic accident, he struggles to
let anyone in. As they grow closer Viv teaches Rez that sometimes
you have to let go in order to be found again...
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Arthur
- The Legend
(Paperback)
David Chauvel; Illustrated by Jean-Luc Simon; Translated by Lannig Treseizh
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R319
R292
Discovery Miles 2 920
Save R27 (8%)
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Brer Rabbit is causing trouble again for his fellow creatures Brer
Fox, Brer Wolf, Brer Bear and others. Within this edition Birch
Tree Publishing brings together all the stories and original
artwork of this classic tale gathered together in one volume. The
result is a treasure of a volume that will delight all ages, and
belongs on every book-she
Available for the first time in paperback, this is the pre-eminent
critical study, and exploration, of how myth and legend played such
a significant role in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The Song of
Middle-earth takes a fresh look at The Lord of the Rings, digging
deep into the foundations of Tolkien's world to reveal the complex
tapestry of history and mythology that lies behind his stories. The
charge that Tolkien's work was merely derivative - that he
extracted elements from other mythologies and incorporated them
into his own fiction - is dismissed in favour of a fascinating
examination of the rich historical background to Middle-earth. From
the mythic tradition of the Tales told in The Book of Lost Tales: I
to the significance of oral storytelling throughout the history of
Middle-earth, this book examines the common themes of mythology
found within Tolkien's work. In doing so, The Song of Middle-earth
demonstrates how Tolkien's desire to create a new mythology for
England is not only apparent in his writing, but also realised.
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