Born in 1928 in a tent on the shore of Loch Fyne, Argyll, Duncan Williamson (d. 2007) eventually came to be recognized as one of the foremost storytellers in Scotland and the world. Webspinner: Songs, Stories, and Reflections of Duncan Williamson, Scottish Traveller is based on more than a hundred hours of tape-recorded interviews undertaken with him in the 1980s. Williamson tells of his birth and upbringing in the west of Scotland, his family background as one of Scotland's seminomadic travelling people, his varied work experiences after setting out from home at about age fifteen, and the challenges he later faced while raising a family of his own, living on the road for half the year. The recordings on which the book is based were made by John D. Niles, who was then an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Niles has transcribed selections from his field tapes with scrupulous accuracy, arranging them alongside commentary, photos, and other scholarly aids, making this priceless self-portrait of a brilliant storyteller available to the public. The result is a delight to read. It is also a mine of information concerning a vanished way of life and the place of singing and storytelling in Traveller culture. In chapters that feature many colorful anecdotes and that mirror the spontaneity of oral delivery, readers learn much about how Williamson and other members of his persecuted minority had the resourcefulness to make a living on the outskirts of society, owning very little in the way of material goods but sustained by a rich oral heritage.

'Scotland's greatest contemporary storyteller.' -- The Guardian Silver Unicorns and Golden Birds is a treasure trove of traditional Scottish folk and fairy tales as told by Duncan Williamson, one of Scotland's greatest storytellers. Young readers will explore a land of folklore and magic inhabited by friendly fairies, wicked ogres, majestic birds and shining unicorns in captivating tales, full of colour, humour and life. These timeless stories have been passed down the generations through oral tradition and are now retold for today's children while carefully preserving Duncan's unique storytelling voice. One of Scotland's Travelling People, Duncan spent a lifetime journeying the country's highways and byways, collecting stories along the way. This beautifully presented treasury includes insight into Duncan's life and cultural heritage alongside a curated collection of his best-loved stories and classic tales. A selection of these stories has previously appeared in The Coming of the Unicorn and The Flight of the Golden Bird.

Realistic, cheeky and easy-to-read, My Mind Won't Shut Up! is a book that challenges meditation myths. It's for ordinary, stressed-out people with money worries, weird families and haemorrhoids. Written by two sturdy-legged Glaswegians with short attention spans, My Mind Won't Shut Up! is aimed at anyone who is curious about meditation but turned off by anything too woo-woo. It is not a spiritual journey, and it won't make you better at kung fu. It will help you be kinder to yourself, stop you from spinning out and make you less prone to emotional wobbles.

The ghosts Linda Williamson writes about in this book are not misty phantoms. She prefers to call them earthbound spirits, because that is just what they are - ordinary men and women who, instead of passing into the spirit world when they died, have remained trapped and bound to this world. As a medium, Linda encounters many such spirits. Very few are evil, most are lost and confused. Some do not even realise that they have died. With love and compassion they can be released, so that they can move forward to the place where they belong. If you have ever sensed a presence in your house, glimpsed a shadow out of the corner of your eye, or heard inexplicable noises, it may be that you are sharing your home with an earthbound spirit. Linda explains what to do in these situations and gives a fascinating insight into what it is like to be an earthbound spirit.

Born in 1928 in a tent on the shore of Loch Fyne, Argyll, Duncan Williamson (d. 2007) eventually came to be recognized as one of the foremost storytellers in Scotland and the world. Webspinner: Songs, Stories, and Reflections of Duncan Williamson, Scottish Traveller is based on more than a hundred hours of tape-recorded interviews undertaken with him in the 1980s. Williamson tells of his birth and upbringing in the west of Scotland, his family background as one of Scotland's seminomadic travelling people, his varied work experiences after setting out from home at about age fifteen, and the challenges he later faced while raising a family of his own, living on the road for half the year. The recordings on which the book is based were made by John D. Niles, who was then an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Niles has transcribed selections from his field tapes with scrupulous accuracy, arranging them alongside commentary, photos, and other scholarly aids, making this priceless self-portrait of a brilliant storyteller available to the public. The result is a delight to read. It is also a mine of information concerning a vanished way of life and the place of singing and storytelling in Traveller culture. In chapters that feature many colorful anecdotes and that mirror the spontaneity of oral delivery, readers learn much about how Williamson and other members of his persecuted minority had the resourcefulness to make a living on the outskirts of society, owning very little in the way of material goods but sustained by a rich oral heritage.