Explore the sprawling network of culture to discover the incredible ways in which ideas connect to shape the world we see today. These mind-blowing essays dig down to the roots of stories, myths and literary genres, travelling from art to politics to history to folklore, and from high to popular culture and back again. Through an intricate web of sidenotes, embark on a voyage of discovery from the unluckiest book ever made to Viking horned helmets to the sex life of vampires .... or from mermaids frolicking in the margins to the ancient Amazons to the power of Amazon and on to Utopia and Atlantis ... This is western culture as you've never seen it before.