'Eleanor Porter is a major new voice in historical fiction.' Tim Clayton Where will her loyalty lead her?Once accused of witchcraft Martha Spicer is now free from the shadow of the gallows and lives a safe and happy life with her husband, Jacob. But when Jacob heads north to accompany his master, he warns Martha to keep her healing gifts a secret, to keep herself safe, to be a good wife. Martha loves Jacob but without him there to protect her, she soon comes under the suspicious eye of the wicked Steward Boult, who's heard of her talent and forces her to attend to him. If she refuses, he promises to destroy the good life she has built for herself with Jacob. Desperate and alone, Martha faces a terrible decision: stay and be beholden to Boult or journey north to find Jacob who is reported to have been killed.. The road ahead is filled with danger, but also the promise of a brighter future. And where her gifts once threatened to be her downfall, might they now be the very thing that sets Martha free...? The brilliant follow-up to Eleanor Porter's first novel of love, betrayal, superstition and fear in Elizabethan England. A story of female courage, ingenuity and determination, this is perfect for fans of Tracy Chevalier. 'Eleanor Porter is a major new voice in historical fiction. With her beautiful use of language and compelling storytelling she conjures the past with a vividness that lingers in the mind long after the final page.' Tim Clayton Praise for The Wheelwright's Daughter:'It's a gripping story and such accomplished writing. I really enjoyed every moment of working on it.' Yvonne Holland, editor of Philippa Gregory and Tracy Chevalier 'A brilliant debut novel' 'An interesting read and an impressive debut novel' 'A wonderfully written story' 'A skilfully crafted story of love, betrayal, superstition and fear in 16th century England.' 'This is a story of courage, trust, betrayal and love.' 'A great historical novel I loved.'

September 1613. In Belvoir Castle, the heir of one of England's great noble families falls suddenly and dangerously ill. His body is 'tormented' with violent convulsions. Within a few short weeks he will suffer an excruciating death. Soon the whole family will be stricken with the same terrifying symptoms. The second son, the last male of the line, will not survive. It is said witches are to blame. And so the Earl of Rutland's sons will not be the last to die. Witches traces the dramatic events which unfolded at one of England's oldest and most spectacular castles four hundred years ago. The case is among those which constitute the European witch craze of the 15th-18th centuries, when suspected witches were burned, hanged, or tortured by the thousand. Like those other cases, it is a tale of superstition, the darkest limits of the human imagination and, ultimately, injustice - a reminder of how paranoia and hysteria can create an environment in which nonconformism spells death. But as Tracy Borman reveals here, it is not quite typical. The most powerful and Machiavellian figure of the Jacobean court had a vested interest in events at Belvoir.He would mastermind a conspiracy that has remained hidden for centuries.

Honza Pernath's life is barren. The person he loves is gone and his friends, even his dreams, say she will not return. When a chance meeting sets him on a search for his lost love, the path is neither straight nor easy and Honza comes to doubt everything, including the one he searches for. A single image-a star rising over the sea-calls him on, but that image is more than it seems and as Honza nears its source, his search reveals more than he could have imagined. A sequel to the mysterious and beautiful short story, 'Marietta Merz' (now an illustrated chapbook), Child of the Black Sun is an exploration of the living symbols at the core of everyday life; a visionary evocation of the internal journey.

The Hermetic Museum takes readers on a magical mystery tour spanning an arc from the medieval cosmogram and images of Christian mysticism, through the fascinating world of alchemy to the art of the Romantic era. The enigmatic hieroglyphs of cabalists, Rosicrucians, and freemasons are shown to be closely linked with the early scientific illustrations in the fields of medicine, chemistry, optics, and color theory. Even for those with no knowledge of the fascinating history of alchemy, this book is a delight to explore. Each richly illustrated chapter begins with an introduction and quotes from alchemists by specialist Alexander Roob. The roots of surrealism and many other more recent artistic movements can be found in this treasure trove. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

"Avery Gordon's stunningly original and provocatively imaginative book explores the connections linking horror, history, and haunting." --George Lipsitz
"The text is of great value to anyone working on issues pertaining to the fantastic and the uncanny." --American Studies International"
"Ghostly Matters" immediately establishes Avery Gordon as a leader among her generation of social and cultural theorists in all fields. The sheer beauty of her language enhances an intellectual brilliance so daunting that some readers will mark the day they first read this book. One must go back many more years than most of us can remember to find a more important book." --Charles Lemert
Drawing on a range of sources, including the fiction of Toni Morrison and Luisa Valenzuela (He Who Searches"), Avery Gordon demonstrates that past or haunting social forces control present life in different and more complicated ways than most social analysts presume. Written with a power to match its subject, Ghostly Matters" has advanced the way we look at the complex intersections of race, gender, and class as they traverse our lives in sharp relief and shadowy manifestations.
Avery F. Gordon is professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Janice Radway is professor of literature at Duke University.

Lizzie Baty, the Brampton Witch (1729-1817), lived close to the village of Brampton in Cumbria and was said to be a 'canny auld body'. A wise woman, she achieved great notoriety in her day. Numerous tales and anecdotes have been handed down over the years relating to Lizzie's 'second-sight', witchcraft and the strange powers that she appeared to possess. They tell of spells, curses and prophecies with Lizzie turning into a hare, her knack of finding lost objects, forecasting marriages as well as strange happenings at her funeral. This book serves to collect together these varying accounts and attempts to establish which are fact and which might be fiction. Whatever conclusion the reader may reach, the Brampton Witch stories, whether real or imagined, are part of Brampton's heritage and deserve to be preserved.

Four years ago when I was discussing the subject of natural healing with practising witch Dr Tarona Hawkins, she mentioned during our conversation that she had notes, files and first draught chapters prepared about her psychic readings, counselling, past life regression work, magickal treatments and herbal remedies, all relating to clients sexual problems. Tarona Hawkins added that her reputation as a sex witch had gathered such momentum that most of her time was now occupied with sex counselling. This volume is the end result of accepting Taronas invitation to transform her records and her knowledge into this book. Within the book you will find covered an incredible variety of sex and sex related subjects, for example: sex magick, sex massage, adult babies, fetishism, demonic sexual encounters, group sex, homosexuality, anal sex, sadomasochism, transvestism, trans-sexualism, sex feeders, sex for the elderly, impotence, penis enlargement, male hygiene, menstruation, past life traumas, the human sexual aura, sexual handwriting characteristics together with other sex related subjects. Pseudonyms have been used throughout to preserve confidentiality and privacy. To all those who read this book; individual members of the public, those with sexual problems, sex counsellors, and of course the occult community, it is hoped that you will gain new insights into the unusually varied spectrum of human sexual behaviour. Four years ago when I was discussing the subject of natural healing with practising witch Dr Tarona Hawkins, she mentioned during our conversation that she had notes, files and first draught chapters prepared about her psychic readings, counselling, past life regression work, magickal treatments and herbal remedies, all relating to clients sexual problems. Tarona Hawkins added that her reputation as a sex witch had gathered such momentum that most of her time was now occupied with sex...

The essays in this Handbook, written by leading scholars working in the rapidly developing field of witchcraft studies, explore the historical literature regarding witch beliefs and witch trials in Europe and colonial America between the early fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries. During these years witches were thought to be evil people who used magical power to inflict physical harm or misfortune on their neighbours. Witches were also believed to have made pacts with the devil and sometimes to have worshipped him at nocturnal assemblies known as sabbaths. These beliefs provided the basis for defining witchcraft as a secular and ecclesiastical crime and prosecuting tens of thousands of women and men for this offence. The trials resulted in as many as fifty thousand executions. These essays study the rise and fall of witchcraft prosecutions in the various kingdoms and territories of Europe and in English, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies in the Americas. They also relate these prosecutions to the Catholic and Protestant reformations, the introduction of new forms of criminal procedure, medical and scientific thought, the process of state-building, profound social and economic change, early modern patterns of gender relations, and the wave of demonic possessions that occurred in Europe at the same time. The essays survey the current state of knowledge in the field, explore the academic controversies that have arisen regarding witch beliefs and witch trials, propose new ways of studying the subject, and identify areas for future research.

In 1968 University of California Press published an unusual manuscript by an anthropology student named Carlos Castaneda. The Teachings of Don Juan enthralled a generation of seekers dissatisfied with the limitations of the Western world view. Castaneda's now classic book remains controversial for the alternative way of seeing that it presents and the revolution in cognition it demands. Whether read as ethnographic fact or creative fiction, it is the story of a remarkable journey that has left an indelible impression on the life of more than a million readers around the world.