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It was not so long ago that the belief in witchcraft was shared by
members of all levels of society. In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, diseases were feared by all, the infant mortality rate
was high, and around one in six harvests was likely to fail. In the
small rural communities in which most people lived, affection and
enmity could build over long periods. When misfortune befell a
family, they looked to their neighbours for support - and for the
cause. During the sixteenth century, Europe was subject to a
fevered and pious wave of witch hunts and trials. As the bodies of
accused women burnt right across the Continent, the flames of a
nationwide witch hunt were kindled in England. In 1612 nine women
were hanged in the Pendle witch trials, the prosecution of the
Chelmsford witches in 1645 resulted in the biggest mass execution
in England, and in the mid-1640s the Witch finder General
instigated a reign of terror in the Puritan counties of East
Anglia. Hundreds of women were accused and hanged. It wasn't until
the latter half of the seventeenth century that witch-hunting went
into decline.In this book, Andrew and David Pickering present a
comprehensive catalogue of witch hunts, arranged chronologically
within geographical regions. The tales of persecution within these
pages are testimony to the horror of witch-hunting that occurred
throughout England in the hundred years after the passing of the
Elizabethan Witchcraft Act of 1563.
A more-ishly browsable collection of words and phrases, linguistic
quirks, lexical oddities and syntactic surprises. Our langauge is
one of delight and curiosity. BUTTERING PARSNIPS, TWOCKING CHAVS is
a guided tour of English, exploring the origins of words, their
changing meaning, lexical peculiarities, word games and lost words,
presented in lists, small passages of narrative text, amusing
quotations and nuggets of amazing facts. This must-have compendium
shows that words have a matchless power to entertain. Here you will
find enough new words and phrases to last a lifetime. Idioms frolic
beside cliches, catchphrases, proverbs, eponyms, acronyms,
spoonerisms and split infinitives. Text messages cavort alongside
business jargon and rap slang to produce a language that is both
witty and bizarre, and sometimes frankly outstanding. So whether
you're a yuppie or a woopie, a sinbad or dinky, a spod or even a
wazzock, these pages will provide endless hours of delight and
fascination.
The indispensible guide to choosing a special name for a baby.
Clear, helpful, and easy-to-use, "The Penguin Book of Baby Names"
offers thousands of wonderful suggestions for picking the perfect
name for your bundle of joy. It includes:
* Separate sections for boys' and girls' names
* More than 5,000 names, from well-loved favorites to something a
little different
* The most popular celebrity names
* Top ten names through the centuries
* Facts about the true meanings and stories behind each name
Have you heard the one about the man who walked into a bar?
(Ouch!)... Penguin Pocket Jokes is essential (and hilarious)
reading for anyone searching for the perfect joke. Whether you want
a snappy wisecrack or a longer rib-tickler when making a speech,
this easy-to-use guide will provide the perfect witticism.
The Penguin Concise Thesaurus is the ideal desk companion for all writers. Authoritative, wide-ranging, up-to-date and easy to use, it offers a vast selection of synonyms for over 15,000 words. Whether you’re solving a crossword or searching for an imaginative phrase for a piece of writing, this companion to The Penguin Concise English Dictionary is an essential reference work. • Contains nearly 400,000 synonyms • Ranges from standard and formal English to slang and jargon • Includes hundreds of contemporary buzzwords and expressions, from chill out to snail mail • Lists words closest in meaning first • Gives helpful examples to pinpoint the nuances of particular words
20 terrifying tales of horror written by such masters of the genre
as Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce. Steel your
nerves for encounters with ghouls, werewolves, invisible vampires,
screaming skulls, monstrous slugs and, not least of all, the
cruelty and murderous nastiness of your fellow-man. Ideal reading
for newcomers to the horror story and aficionados alike. A
companion volume to 'Classic Horror Stories', 'Classic Ghost
Stories', 'Classic Ghost Stories 2' and 'Classic Short Stories'.
This collection contains twenty of the very best supernatural tales
from the golden age of the ghost story. It includes classics by
some of the most esteemed writers of the Victorian and Edwardian
eras, among them Sheridan Le Fanu, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ambrose
Bierce, Washington Irving and M.R. James. Also included are
neglected masterpieces of terror by the likes of William Hope
Hodgson, Mrs B.M. Croker, Louisa Baldwin and Amyas Northcote. The
stories themselves range from the quaintly wistful to the genuinely
disturbing and, hopefully, will delight and surprise aficionados of
the ghost story and newcomers alike. Each tale comes complete with
a brief biography of the author. A companion volume to 'Classic
Ghost Stories' and 'Classic Horror Stories'.
This unconventional rites-of-passage debut novel begins on the last
evening of the twentieth century and spans a 25-year period in the
life of its central character, encompassing along the way life in
an English public school, a mysterious stone circle, witchcraft,
illegal archaeology, first sex, teen confusion, hedgehogs and
sudden death. Adventurous in subject matter, form and language, it
has topped charts on sites for new writing. "Stunningly good,"
"Witty and gripping," "A wonderful piece of writing" (readers'
comments).
Containing twenty classic short stories written by masters of the
form, this collection includes unforgettable tales from Maupassant,
Chekhov, Hardy and many more great writers. Some, like Saki's 'The
Open Window' or Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Diamond as Big as the
Ritz', are delightfully mischievous explorations of human foibles;
others, like Gogol's 'The Overcoat' or Poe's 'The Fall of the House
of Usher' ruminate more darkly upon the enigma of mortal existence.
No reader will want to be without these short masterpieces, which
come complete with brief biographies of each author.
20 terrifying tales of horror written by such masters of the genre
as Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker. Close the
curtains, put another log on the fire, and embark on a scary
journey into an underworld roamed by murderous Inquisitors,
long-dead witches, phantom cars, haunted dolls, werewolves,
mummies, zombies and vampires, to name but a few. Ideal reading for
newcomers to the horror story and aficionados alike. A companion
volume to Classic Ghost Stories and Classic Ghost Stories 2.
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