Download or read book Bardskull written by Martin Shaw and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-02 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bardskull is the record of three journeys made by Martin Shaw, the celebrated storyteller and interpreter of myth, in the year before he turned fifty. It is unlike anything he has written before. This is not a book about myth or narrative: rather, it is a sequence of incantations, a series of battles. Each of the three journeys sees Shaw walk alone into a Dartmoor forest and wait. What arrive are stories – fragments of myth that he has carried within him for decades: the deep history of Dartmoor itself; the lives of distant family members; Arthurian legend; and tales from India, Persia, Lapland, the Caucasus and Siberia. But these stories and their tellers don’t arrive as the bearers of solace or easy wisdom. As with all quests, Shaw is entering a domain of traps and tests. Bardskull can be read as a fable, as memoir, as auto-fiction or as an attempt to undomesticate myth. It is a magnificent, unclassifiable work of the imagination.
Download or read book Courting the Wild Twin written by Martin Shaw and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2020 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master mythologist Martin Shaw uses timeless story-wisdom to examine our broken relationship with the world There is an old legend that says we each have a wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our vitality with them. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that the wild twin is holding the key. In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild twin--a metaphor for the part of ourselves that we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms--to invite them back into our consciousness, for they have something important to tell us. He challenges us to examine our broken relationship with the world, to think boldly, wildly, and in new ways about ourselves--as individuals and as a collective. Through the use of scholarship, storytelling, and personal reflection, Shaw unpacks two ancient European fairy tales that concern the mysterious wild twin. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he suggests we can restore our agency and confront modern challenges with purpose, courage, and creativity. Courting the Wild Twin is a declaration of literary activism and an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. Shaw asks us to recognize mythology as a secret weapon--a radical, beautiful, heart-shuddering agent of deep, lasting change.
Download or read book 21st Century Yokel written by Tom Cox and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Glorious – funny and wry and wise, and utterly its own lawmaker' Robert Macfarlane 'A rich, strange, oddly glorious brew' Guardian Longlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2018 21st-Century Yokel is not quite nature writing, not quite a family memoir, not quite a book about walking, not quite a collection of humorous essays, but a bit of all five. Thick with owls and badgers, oak trees and wood piles, scarecrows and ghosts, and Tom Cox's loud and excitable dad, this book is full of the folklore of several counties – the ancient kind and the everyday variety – as well as wild places, mystical spots and curious objects. Emerging from this focus on the detail are themes that are broader and bigger and more important than ever. Tom's writing treads a new path, one that has a lot in common with a rambling country walk; it's bewitched by fresh air and big skies, intrepid in minor ways, haunted by weather and old stories and the spooky edges of the outdoors, restless and prone to a few detours, but it always reaches its destination in the end.
Download or read book Snowy Tower written by Martin Shaw and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Snowy Tower, Dr. Martin Shaw continues his trilogy of works on the relationship between myth, wilderness, and a culture of wildness. In this second book, he gives a telling of the Grail epic Parzival. Claiming it as a great trickster story of medieval Europe, he offers a deft and erudite commentary, with topics ranging from climate change and the soul to the discipline of erotic consciousness, from the hallucination of empire to a revisioning of the dark speech of the ancient bards. Ingrained in the very syntax of Snowy Tower is an invocation of what Shaw calls 'wild mythologies' -- stories that are more than just human allegory, that seem to brush the winged thinking of owl, stream, and open moor. This daring work offers a connection to the genius of the margins; that the big questions of today will not be solved by big answers, but by the myriad of associations that both myth and wilderness offer.
Download or read book The Monster Caf written by Sean Leahy and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In every town, there is one shop that always changes its face. In Stapleton, it was the very last shop in town. Bib is an adventurous sort of a boy, so a new café wouldn’t faze him, even if it was run by monsters! Excited by the idea of having a birthday dinner made by hairy beasts and served by a snake-like waitress, he encourages his whole family to take him to the most talked-about place in town. But what, or who will be on the menu? The debut children’s book by Sean Leahy and Mihály Orodán, The Monster Café is a humorous tale that deals with pre-conceptions, pre-school excitement and pre-tty big monsters.
Download or read book Duncton Wood written by William Horwood and published by Canelo. This book was released on 2017-01-30 with total page 905 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epic first novel in the allegorical fantasy series about the romance and adventures of a community of moles is “a breathtaking achievement” (The Washington Post). The moles of Duncton Wood live in the shadow of Mandrake, a cruel tyrant corrupted by absolute power. A solitary young mole, Bracken, leads the fight to free them. Only by putting his trust in the ancient Stone, a forgotten symbol of a great spiritual past, can Bracken find the strength to challenge Mandrake’s darkness. When Bracken falls in love with Rebecca, Mandrake’s daughter, the moles must make life and death choices as their extraordinary search for freedom and truth begins. Together, Bracken and Rebecca will embark on moving journey that will challenge them in ways they could never have imagined. But can they save Duncton before it’s too late? “A passionate, lyrical, appealing tale . . . Consistently absorbing . . . Enchanting.” —Cosmopolitan “A great big mole-epic with a great big theme.” —Daily Mail
Download or read book Smoke Hole written by Martin Shaw and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With potent, lyrical language and a profound knowledge of storytelling, Shaw encourages and illuminates the mythic in our own lives. He is a modern-day bard." – Madeline Miller, author of Circe and The Song of Achilles At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives—identity, technology, trust, politics, and a global pandemic—celebrated mythologist and wilderness guide Martin Shaw delivers Smoke Hole: three metaphors to help us understand our world, one that is assailed by the seductive promises of social media and shadowed by a health crisis that has brought loneliness and isolation to an all-time high. Smoke Hole is a passionate call to arms and an invitation to use these stories to face the complexities of contemporary life, from fake news, parenthood, climate crises, addictive technology and more. Shaw urges us to reclaim our imagination and untangle ourselves from modern menace, letting these tales be our guide. More Praise: "I can still remember the first time I heard Martin Shaw tell a story. The tale that emerged was like a living thing, bounding around, throwing itself at us there listening. I had never heard anything like it before." – Paul Kingsnorth, Booker shortlisted author of The Wake "Martin Shaw’s work is so very beautiful. A new animal. His love of images is deep and contagious." – Coleman Barks, author of The Essential Rumi "Through feral tales and poetic exegesis, Martin Shaw makes you re-see the world, as a place of adventure, and of initiation, as perfect home, and as perfectly other. What a gift." – David Keenan, author of Xstabeth "Shaw has so much wisdom and knowledge about the old stories, it emanates from his pores." – John Densmore, The Doors
Download or read book Horse Destroys the Universe written by Cyriak Harris and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Black Beauty and gallops off into The Matrix in the debut novel from cult internet sensation Cyriak Harris Life was simple for Buttercup the horse. Chewing grass in a field, gazing dreamily at passing clouds or standing at a hedge to watch the world go by. Perhaps a light nap followed by a gentle canter and more grazing, and then off to the stable for a programme of psychological tests designed to expand the boundaries of horse consciousness. For Betty and Tim, life was also simple. Or at least as simple as life could be when you are scientists conducting neurological experiments on a horse. That is until the day they discovered their horse was conducting an experiment of its own. Life became rather more complicated after that for Tim, Betty and Buttercup, and the ensuing struggle for control over one horse's destiny results in an intellectual arms race that takes all three of them to the edge of reality and beyond. It is a struggle that threatens to shake the foundations of civilisation and unravel the fabric of time and space. Can anyone stop this horse from destroying the universe?
Download or read book Reasons My Cat Is Mad written by Heloísa Nora and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered exactly what your cat is thinking? What they’re trying to tell you with that strange pose and wild expression? Wonder no more! Reasons My Cat Is Mad is an illustrated journey through the elusive minds of our furry companions, from the creator of the hit Twitter account Poorly Drawn Cats. For years, Heloísa Nora has captivated the internet with her sketches, and now she’s giving her pets a forever home in this warm and witty collection. Whether these cats are mad about bath time or disgruntled at their dinner options, Heloísa has compiled their antics into a feline hall of fame for all to enjoy.
Download or read book The Surfboard written by Dan Kieran and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Surfboard is Dan Kieran's account of a week he spent in Cornwall building a seven-foot surfboard, even though he had never surfed a day in his life. He did this at a time when he felt he had reached his personal and professional limits: he needed to find a way to break through. Interspersed with the story of making the board – the intricate craft he had to learn, and the clarity of mind that came with that challenge – are the reflections on the obstacles, rewards and realisations he encountered while starting and running a successful business. This startlingly honest book is a finely crafted meditation on the importance of making things for their own sake and pushing beyond our preconceived limitations.
Download or read book A Branch from the Lightning Tree written by Martin Shaw and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is centered around several key elements: 1. It features four texts and commentaries ? Welsh, Russian, Siberian and Norwegian myths that explore the process of leaving what is considered safe and predictable and journeying out into wild, uncertain areas of nature and the psyche in search of new insights. The four stories have at their center a man, woman, and adolescent. 2. A narrative of why the author gave up a large musical publishing deal with Warner Brothers to spend four years living in a tent in the wilds and over a decade facilitating wilderness rites-of-passage for others. 3. Shaw's eloquent insistence that without a renewed attention to myth and the initiation process we are only partially equipped to reestablish a complementary relationship with the living world. 4. The core of these stories are paradoxical in nature, far from the clumsily perceived ?hero' myths, and point towards Trickster, or Coyote, as a way of existing in a world ambivalent to the insights of what you could call traditional knowledge. A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is unique in the field of myth and ritual in several ways: 1. It carries an ?in-the-field' narrative of several hundred men and women who have gone out into wild places to fast for four days and nights. Not in the Amazon, or in Mongolia, but in a place that is indigenous to them, that grounds the experience in the wider context of their lives, rather than a one-off event that can be hard to reconnect with. This is part of a growing mood to get to the bones of initiatory experience, rather than the cultural affectations. The stories illustrate both the grandeur and struggle of this often subtle process. 2. Unlike many of the big mythological sellers (i.e Bly's IRON JOHN or Pinkola Estes WOMEN WHO RUN WITH WOLVES), A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE is not a gender piece, but focuses on both men and women's movement into wildness as part of the bigger awareness of climate change and ecology. It presents the old stories as keys into any debate on these issues, that the ability to think metaphorically/mythologically loosens the grip of literalness, and can ?re-enchant' our perspectives. 3. As a wilderness teacher Shaw has noticed that the real point of crisis that is emerging is the return to community, rather than the time out in the wild. This is turning of rites-of-passage on its head: Shaw reasons that the rites-of-passage process requires three stages following an initial Call to the Soul: (i) Going out of the Village, and the severance from ordinary life and the stepping into the image-laden language of myth, story, ritual; (ii) Into the Forest, baring the soul to extraordinary forces, receiving the sacred wound, bonding with the living world; (iii) And Back Again, return to community, the performance of identity, and the confirmation in and of the Soul. A BRANCH FROM THE LIGHTNING TREE invokes Robert Graves work on the White Goddess, and the Crow poems of Ted Hughes-it is a combination of practical knowledge, imaginative insight and passionate storytelling that gives Shaw's book its persuasiveness and power. At times incantatory, at times novelistic and poetic, he writes as someone who has been to these places, undergone these trials and tested himself at the extremes of lived experience.
Download or read book The Plagiarist in the Kitchen written by Jonathan Meades and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2017-04-06 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘I adore Meades’s book . . . I want more of his rule-breaking irreverence in my kitchen’ New York Times ‘The Plagiarist in the Kitchen is hilariously grumpy, muttering at us “Don’t you bastards know anything?” You can read it purely for literary pleasure, but Jonathan Meades makes everything sound so delicious that the non-cook will be moved to cook and the bad cook will cook better’ David Hare, Guardian The Plagiarist in the Kitchen is an anti-cookbook. Best known as a provocative novelist, journalist and film-maker, Jonathan Meades has also been called ‘the best amateur chef in the world’ by Marco Pierre White. His contention here is that anyone who claims to have invented a dish is delusional, dishonestly contributing to the myth of culinary originality. Meades delivers a polemical but highly usable collection of 125 of his favourite recipes, each one an example of the fine art of culinary plagiarism. These are dishes and methods he has hijacked, adapted, improved upon and made his own. Without assuming any special knowledge or skill, the book is full of excellent advice. He tells us why the British never got the hang of garlic. That a purist would never dream of putting cheese in a Gratin Dauphinois. That cooking brains in brown butter cannot be improved upon. And why – despite the advice of Martin Scorsese’s mother – he insists on frying his meatballs. In a world dominated by health fads, food vloggers and over-priced kitchen gadgets, The Plagiarist in the Kitchen is timely reminder that, when it comes to food, it’s almost always better to borrow than to invent.
Download or read book Of Mouse and Man written by Jim'll Paint It and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Ask me to paint anything you wish and I will try no matter how specific or surreal your demands. You name it. I’ll paint it. On Paint.’ Jim has painted some truly unhinged requests – from ‘Kanye West giving birth to himself’ and 'Ross Kemp on toast' to 'A swan wearing Björk as a dress' and ‘Bill Oddie beating Hitler at Catchphrase’ – each brought to life with painstaking detail using nothing but an archaic version of Microsoft Paint and an optical mouse. Many have since become beloved icons of British internet culture, such as ‘The chestburster scene from Alien portrayed by famous TV puppets’ and the infamous 'Tory Squat Party'. Of Mouse and Man is the very best of Jim’s first five years of work alongside never-before-seen material and unique insights into his creative process.
Download or read book The Tyrant and the Squire written by Terry Jones and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2018-02-08 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deep in the Crusades, Tom has run away from home to discover what the noble life of a knight is really like. But now that his dreams have come true and he has been knighted, all is not as rosy as he'd hoped. Terry Jones is known for his work with Monty Python, his stories for children (which won him the Children's Book Award) and his medieval books. In The Tyrant and the Squire he uses his inimitable comic imagination and originality to combine all three of these elements and create a perfect story for children and grown-ups alike. The Tyrant and the Squire is a glorious adventure from one of the UK's beloved comic performers.
Download or read book Heart of the Original written by Steve Aylett and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-10 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: True creativity, the making of a thing which has not been in the world previously, is originality by definition. But while many claim to crave originality, they feel an obscure revulsion when confronted with it. The really new is uncomfortable and disturbing. Repetition of the familiar is preferred. The hailing of old ideas as original lowers the standard for invention and robs most creative people of the drive to do anything interesting, let alone seek out the universe of originality which is waiting, drumming its fingers, wondering why nobody calls. This is a book for all those who care not for the fashionable simulacra of the media creative, but for an understanding of the hard road to true originality. Part manual, part history of ideas, part manifesto – this a unique experimental journey around the outer limits of our culture. It debunks myths, contradicts familiar shiboleths and wages war on cliché and platitude as it has never been waged before. A rallying cry and disruptive book for those bored with merely thinking outside the box.
Download or read book 21 Miles written by Jessica Hepburn and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'This book will help so many people' Positive Fertility An Outdoor Swimming Society Book of the Year 2018 After a decade of trying and failing to become a mother, Jessica Hepburn knew it was time to do something different. So she decided to swim twenty-one miles across the English Channel – no easy feat, especially for someone who couldn't swim very well. As the punishing training schedule commenced, Jessica learned you need to put on weight to stave off the cold. This gave her the idea to meet and eat with a collection of inspiring women, and ask them: does motherhood make you happy? From baronesses and professors to award-winners and record-breakers, each of the women had compelling truths to tell about fulfilment and the meaning of motherhood.
Download or read book The Stranger s Guide to Talliston written by John Tarrow and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abandoned and alone, thirteen-year-old Joe’s world is shattered when he enters a deserted council house and becomes trapped within a labyrinth protecting the last magical places on earth. There, Joe discovers a book charting this immense no-man’s land, without time or place, its thirteen doors each leading to a different realm. Hunted by sinister foes, the boy is forced ever deeper into both the maze and the mystery of his missing parents. What will he find at the labyrinth's centre, and can it reunite him with the family he so desperately needs? Crossing through diverse landscapes from Victorian Britain to fifties New Orleans, The Stranger's Guide to Talliston is inspired by the internationally famous house and gardens dubbed 'Britain’s Most Extraordinary Home' by the Sunday Times. It is a classic YA tale of adventure that introduces readers to an otherworld hiding in plain sight, cloaked in magic and steeped in imagined history. Yet beyond its fearsome huntsmen and battling magicians dwells the secret that lies within all of us – the power to live extraordinary lives. Every copy of The Stranger’s Guide to Talliston includes one entry to the Golden Key to Talliston Grand Draw. Every year there is to be a grand draw to award the fabled Golden Key to Talliston to one fortunate child and their guardian. This will be determined by lottery at 12:00 midday on 6th October and include a private and exclusive holiday inside the magical house and gardens featured in this book.
