Tantra has been defined as "a mystical philosophy" and as "an unorthodox religious tendency." Both definitions are incomplete. While Tantra has mystical, philosophical and religious aspects it is, above all, a technique of action - a system of physical, mental and spiritual disciple incorporating meditation, yoga, and sacramental worship in the widest sense of the phrase. This system has one purpose: the transformation of the individual - his or her rebirth to a new existence, . There is no "tantric faith" to be accepted or rejected on the bases of thought and emotion. tantrics make the same claim as Western magicians: "if you follow a certain course of action you will be led back to the roots of your own identity and will learn the truth about yourself and the universe you inhabit." Tantra of Westerners is a complete theoretical and practical guide to the Way of Action, covering the concepts of pleasure and pain, power and passivity, esoteric physiology, Tantra and Qabalism, right-hand and left-hand Tantra, tantric ritual for westerners and the arousal of kundalini - the serpent power, . Francis King (1934-1994) was a well known authority on magick, mysticism and religion. His books includes Ritual Magic in England and The Magical World of Aleister Crowley.

"All rising to great place is by a winding stair," wrote Sir Francis Bacon. It wasn't until he was 45 that Bacon's feet found the first step on that staircase, when King James I made him Solicitor-General, from where he rose through the ranks to become Lord Chancellor. Many accounts of the life of Sir Francis Bacon have been written for scholars, but du Maurier's aim was to paint a vivid portrait of this remarkable man for the common reader. In "The Winding Stair, " she illuminates the considerable achievements of this Renaissance man as a writer, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and politician. Dame Daphne du Maurier wrote more than 25 acclaimed novels, short stories, and plays, including "Rebecca" and "The House on the Strand. "She was also a passionate and skillful biographer.

Two Years of Wandering is a vivid picture of life in Soviet Russia during the civil war, through the eyes of Lenin's longstanding political rival, the leading Menshevik Fedor Dan. It is the first translation into any language of Dan's memoir, written and published in Russian in 1922. Dan had been an active revolutionary and Marxist since the 1890s, and one of the Soviet leaders in 1917, but by 1920, when this memoir begins, he and his party were leading a precarious, semi-legal existence. From then until his expulsion from Soviet Russia in 1922, Dan's life as a mobilised state employee and political oppositionist took him from Moscow to the Urals, the Russo-Polish front, Soviet congresses in Moscow and Petrograd - and to prison. Now available for the first time in English, Francis King's translation of Dan's memoir sheds new light on life in the 'war communist' siege economy in the capitals and the provinces, on the mentalities of the supporters and critics of Lenin's government, and on the political logic driving the development of the Soviet one-party system and its criminalisation of any dissent. The volume is essential reading for both academics and general readers interested in the crucial political and social shifts that took place in Soviet Russia during this period of great change.