Search results for ""author john matthews""
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Freight Trains in the North of England: An Illustrated Survey, 1950-2018
We all remember the famous trains of yesteryear like The Flying Scotsman, The Royal Scot and The Waverley, passenger trains from the great days of steam, but behind the glamour of these celebrated expresses were the dirty unloved goods trains. Well into the 1980s it was possible to ride behind and experience most locomotives on passenger services, but the arrival of the HST and diesel multiple units soon changed this, and with the odd exception, today's locos can only be found working on freight trains. The interest in the goods or freight train has risen greatly in recent years even against a backdrop of reduced depots, yards and variety of workings. This book brings together the work of many of our most outstanding railway photographers featuring some of their best work from the mid 1950s right up to the present day. The old local trip with its wooden trucks, the long mixed goods, the heavy steel train and Speedlink services all feature from the steam, diesel and electric eras. Put these trains into picturesque Northern landscapes or set them against almost forgotten industrial backdrops and we hopefully have a book that captures the Freight Train in the North of England. AUTHOR: John Matthews was born at Preston Royal Infirmary in September 1951 and grew up in a terraced street devoid of a single car! He left school at sixteen with the modest achievement of two GCE O levels in English and Mathematics. A job in a bank and a short spell as a bus driver followed. 200 colour and b/w illustrations
£22.50
Headline Publishing Group Celtic Totem Animals: Working with shamanic helpers
This is a fascinating collection of traditional Celtic stories to amaze and entertain. Animal tricksters, boasters and heroes all dwell herein, set amidst the dazzling universe of Celtic lore. Using the web link included in the book, play the drumming music, and allow yourself to be safely carried on a wave of sound, to experience your own shamanic journey. In this gentle trance you can find your totem Animal, and the 20 Totem Animal cards included will help you choose animal helpers for particular situations. Ask for guidance on life issues - for self-empowerment or simply for fun.
£12.99
Welbeck Publishing Group The Celtic Shamans Pack
Enter the magical realm of the shaman and develop your latent shamanic skills. The Celtic Shaman''s Pack offers direct access to the inner cosmos of the Celts, enabling you to make contact with the powerful archetypes to be found there. This pack constitutes your ''shaman''s pouch'' your very own collection of items imbued with magical or mystical significance, offering a bridge between the world of the everyday and the world of unseen reality that is a part of every shaman''s training.The cards represent key aspects of the Celtic universe, providing you with a set of shamanic journey co-ordinates. By working with the images on a daily basis, for divination and discovery, you will learn to journey on the visionary path and gain a heightened understanding of yourself, as well as insight into your true life direction.
£22.49
Watkins Media Limited The Book of Celtic Verse: A Treasury of Poetry, Dreams & Visions
This is an inspiring, magical and beautifully packaged collection of Celtic poetry compiled by a leading authority on Celtic tradition. Arranged into five thematic chapters, this anthology reflects the uniquely Celtic love of nature, history, love, myth, magic and spirituality. From the earliest times, the language-loving Celts revered their bards: they established a poetic tradition beginning in the 6th century with the intricate magical verse of Taliesin. It continued in the rich medieval works of Dafydd ap Gwilym and Rhys Goch and stayed strong in the 19th and 20th centuries with Gerald Manley Hopkins, and writers such as R.J. Stewart, Robin Williamson and Catherine Fisher. Matthews has chosen the finest works by the most diverse range of poets and translated many of the oldest for this volume. His selection will offer readers a window on to the world of the ancient Celtic peoples, celebrating their culture and the great masterpieces of lyricism and brilliance that have survived the ages.
£12.99
Ebury Publishing The Celtic Shaman
Probably the oldest known spiritual discipline, shamanism is the timeless art of living in harmony with creation, providing a universal system to work with today, whatever our religion or spiritual affiliation may be. A reflection of a living tradition with a supremely practical approach to life, it teaches skills for living and ways to utilize latent abilities which we all possess. Celtic Shamanism derives from the native traditions of North-West Europe. The shamanic contribution of the Celts and their predecessors has been overlooked until recently, and is one of the last shamanic traditions to be explored. While it shares common elements with American, Australian and Siberian teachings, it derives entirely from Celtic source material. The Celtic Shaman offers a varied and easily followed plan of self-tuition for anyone interested in Celtic mythology and the Western mysteries.
£18.99
Avenue Books Jurassic Ark: A Journey Through Time with Noah
£9.95
Schiffer Publishing Ltd The Fools New Journey Tarot
Discover a completely new way of divining with Tarot that's connected to the past but points to the future As the world continuously changes, Tarot, too, must change, and the Fool must begin a new journey. The advent of psychology, magical viewpoints, and recent worldwide societal upheaval led scholar John Matthews to create a new deck that brings Tarot into the present. The Fool's New Journeyis a 60-card deck and guidebook set, representing recognizable aspects of the human condition without losing the deeper resonance of the traditional 78-card deck. Illustrated art created by Charles Newington strives to be simpler, more direct, and more personal, in order to better speak to modern issues. It''s a deck that strips away the ancient symbology, brings the Tarot back to zero, and then takes it to places it has never been before, through new dimensions and by new roads. Card dimensions: 2 3/4 x 4
£28.79
Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. The Beowulf Oracle
£25.19
Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. The Byzantine Tarot
£28.79
Middleton Press Preston To Blackpool: The Fylde Lines
£19.95
Middleton Press Blackburn to Hellifield: The Ribble Valley Line
£19.95
Watkins Media Limited The Cathar Tarot
This magnificent deck offers a unique tarot experience that draws on the ancient wisdom tradition stretching back through the Cathars to the Grail myths and the Gnostics. Bestselling tarot expert John Matthews reveals how the universal symbolic language of tarot parallels the Cathar journey of initiation, and invites modern seekers to follow the Cathars' path to self-knowledge and spiritual fulfilment.The cards are illustrated by famed tarot artist Wil Kinghan.
£17.10
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Passenger Trains in the North of England
Passenger Trains in the North of England features over 270 black and white pictures and takes the reader northbound from South Yorkshire and Cheshire to the Scottish Borders. Also covered in detail are a wide selection of pictures from Cumbria, West and North Yorkshire among others. We see main line expresses, branch line and local trains, plus special workings running along today's railways and lines that have faded into history. Steam, diesel and electric powered trains are pictured right across the North of England including industrial and city views plus a great selection taking in the highly picturesque locations of the northern hills and Dales. Embracing a period of 65 years the book features images from as early as 1957 right through the late steam era up to the present day. The stars of the book are obviously the trains of the past, but just as important are the top photographers who have kindly provided these high-quality pictures for your enjoyment. While the author has sneaked a few of his own efforts in, the main contributions come from the great names of the railway photography world including Gavin Morrison, Les Nixon, Peter Fitton, John Whiteley, John Cooper Smith and others.
£20.00
Watkins Media Limited The Tarot of Light and Shadow
The Tarot of Light and Shadow presents a new multi-layered way of working with the Tarot: using two decks to explore the Shadow and Light sides of any questions at once. Although some professional readers have used this idea with different packs, and to great effect, this is the first time two Tarot decks have been designed specifically to work together. In fact, they can be seen not as two separate decks but as one deck appearing in two dimensions.The principle of the two-deck system can be explained as follows: there are two sides to every question and two sides to every answer. Answers come both from within and without. Inner influences as well as outer affect our choices and may dictate our concerns. When we face a problem or issue for which we turn to the Tarot for advice, there are many different ways to approach the query. The Shadow deck gives you insight into your inner world, your subconscious, your instinct and what is not yet in the light of consciousness, while the Light deck reflects the the outer world, the rational and what is already known about an issue. This ground-breaking two-deck system allows the reader to explore bothsides of such questions at once, and to find the best way forward in the blending of both answers.
£20.69
Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. The Grail Tarot
£28.79
Inner Traditions Bear and Company The Complete King Arthur: Many Faces, One Hero
Presenting the culmination of more than 40 years’ research, John and Caitlín Matthews examine the historical and mythological evidence for every major theory about the existence of King Arthur. Drawing on modern techniques in archaeology and scholarship, they reconstruct the history of the 6th century in Britain, the period when the first unambiguous references to Arthur appear. They explore the history of every Arthur candidate, the geographical arguments that have placed him in different locations, and the evidence for his life and famous battles fought against the Saxons. Was the greatest British hero of all time not a king but a 2nd-century Roman officer active around Hadrian’s Wall in Cumbria? A 5th-century soldier who operated in areas as far apart as Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, or Brittany? Or an entirely mythical fiction that provided a figure of light during a dark period of British history?
£17.09
Headline Publishing Group Wild Magic: The Wildwood Tarot Workbook
Want to delve deeper into the concepts that made The Wildwood Tarot wildly popular? This workbook further explores those powerful ancient traditions. Wild Magic invokes the power of the Wildwood – the Green Man and Green Woman, as well as all the living archetypes of the forest, such as Herne the Hunter and Robin-in-the-Hood. Journey across time to the pre-Celtic world where primal forces, in the guise of animal, bird, and fish, roamed free and opened doorways into the otherworld of the Ancestors. With chapters on the Lore of the Wild, the Wheel of the Year, shamanic methods of examining the wild, and meditations designed to enable personal encounters with Wildwood archetypes, as well as newly crafted rituals enabling readers to celebrate festivals such as the Midsummer and Midwinter Solstices, the book takes a fresh and informed look at a set of ancient traditions applied to the present.
£12.99
Headline Publishing Group The Complete Arthurian Tarot: Includes classic deck with revised and updated coursebook
Journey into Arthur's kingdom through the 22 Greater Powers of the Arthurian realm, together with the 56 Lesser Powers depicting the landscapes of Logres, the ancient Arthurian kingdom that lies outside of time. The book includes a complete meditation course leading you around the year, with the characters of the Arthurian world as your guides and teachers, along with detailed card meanings, divination methods and a wide selection of consultation spreads.By following the seasonal quest for the Hallows – the ancient treasures of the Goddess of the Land – you discover the spiritual empowerments of your soul's purpose. Meditate on the suits of Sword, Spear, Grail and Stone to assimilate the teachings of the cards and establish your own access to the realms within the timeless kingdom of King Arthur and his court.
£24.29
Amberley Publishing The Nanteos Grail: The Evolution of a Holy Relic
The theft of the Nanteos Cup from a private home in Wales in 2015 – and its even more remarkable recovery two years later – made the headlines in most major newspapers and featured on BBC Crimewatch. People who had never heard of the cup began asking what it is – a question that has occupied people for the past three hundred years, since word of this mysterious vessel first began to filter out to the world. Now it is on display to the public, for the first time since the nineteenth century, at the National Library of Wales. Though unremarkable to look at, stories of the cup’s powers and of the miraculous cures experienced by those who drank from it have been in circulation for years. At some point it became associated with one of the most enduring stories of all time – the Holy Grail. Written by three experts, The Nanteos Grail collects together for the first time records of the history of the vessel from its first appearance in the Middle Ages to the present. It will appeal to all those interested in historical mysteries and to seekers of the spiritual history of the Grail.
£16.99
Verso Books Between Existentialism and Marxism
This book presents a full decade of Sartre's work, from the publication of the Critique of Dialectical Reason in 1960, the basic philosophical turning-point in his postwar development, to the inception of his major study on Flaubert, the first volumes of which appeared in 1971. The essays and interviews collected here form a vivid panorama of the range and unity of Sartre's interests, since his deliberate attempt to wed his original existentialism to a rethought Marxism.A long and brilliant autobiographical interview, given to New Left Review in 1969, constitutes the best single overview of Sartre's whole intellectual evolution. Three analytic texts on the US war in Vietnam, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the lessons of the May Revolt in France, define his political positions as a revolutionary socialist. Questions of philosophy and aesthetics are explored in essays on Kierkegaard, Mallarme and Tintoretto. Another section of the collection explores Sartre's critical attitude to orthodox psychoanalysis as a therapy, and is accompanied by rejoinders from colleagues on his journal Les Temps Modernes. The volume concludes with a prolonged reflection on the nature and role of intellectuals and writers in advanced capitalism, and their relationship to the struggles of the exploited and oppressed classes. Between Existentialism and Marxism is an impressive demonstration of the breadth and vitality of Sartre's thought, and its capacity to respond to political and cultural changes in the contemporary world.
£20.99
Amberley Publishing Robin Hood
The identity of Robin Hood has been questioned many times since the Outlaw of Sherwood first sprang to fame in the twelfth century. No two authorities seem able to agree as to his origins, antecedents, or even whether or not he was a historical personage or a mythical figure. Historians, both amateur and professional, have for years been bringing out new books in which they claim to have found ‘the real Robin Hood’, but his identity remains clouded. More recent studies have sought to push the boundaries of the story further out into recorded time – seeking Robin Hood among the records of government and law enforcement, in the ballads of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, and in the folk memory of the people of Britain. For them, Robin is a product of the ballad-maker’s muse, or a literary fabrication based on the lives and deeds of several outlaws or the garbled memory of an actual person whose real life bore little or no resemblance to the romanticised songs of the ballad-makers. This is the only contemporary book to fully explore the mythology of Robin Hood rather than concentrating on the human identity of the famous outlaw. It ties Robin to the ancient archetype of the Green Man, the lore and legends of the Faery race, to the possible Eastern influence of the English Mummers’ plays, and suggests the real identities of several of the Merry Men.
£10.99
Headline Publishing Group Wildwood Tarot: Wherein wisdom resides
Based on the seasonal rhythms and festivals of the ancient year, "The Wildwood Tarot" draws its inspiration from pre-Celtic mythology and shamanic mysteries, placing mystical archetypes into a nature-based system rich in shamanic wisdom and forest lore. The archetypal forces of the deck act as both guides and interpreters, taking us on a spiritual, mystical and psychological journey deep into the labyrinth of primal Earth mysteries. To walk among the age-old trees of the wildwood is to journey back in time. In this eye-catching deck, previously known as "The Greenwood Tarot", Mark Ryan and John Matthews reawaken the classic forest archetypes of the Green Man and Woman, the Archer, the Hooded Man and the Blasted Oak. Will Worthington's rich and vivid images bring this ancient world back to life and make it possible to feel the magic and power of the wildwood. The 160-page book comes with a 78 beautifully illustrated tarot cards.
£22.49
Amberley Publishing Artorius: The Real King Arthur
The search for the historical figure behind what is arguably the most famous cycle of legends ever has been unrelenting over the centuries. Here, two noted Arthurian experts argue that the man whose story started the Arthurian myth was a soldier named Lucius Artorius Castus who lived at the end of the second century AD. Castus’s extraordinary career took him from one end of the Roman Empire to the other, bringing him into contact with tribespeople among the Steppe nomads – in particular the Sarmatians. For several decades the Sarmatians have been thought to be the inspiration behind Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, among other British tales. The authors provide a fascinating detective story following the life of Lucius Artorius Castus against the colourful backdrop of the history of the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and his son, the barely sane Commodus. In doing so they reveal the manifold links between Artorius and the legend.
£18.00
Hodder & Stoughton The Secret Lore of London: The city's forgotten stories and mythology
With a foreword by Iain Sinclair. London is an ancient city, whose foundation dates back literally thousands of years into the legendary prehistory of these islands. Not surprisingly it has accumulated a large number of stories, both historic and mythical, during this period, many of which, though faithfully recorded at the time, have lain almost forgotten in dusty libraries throughout the city. The Secret Lore of London is a guide to the legends, including a discussion of their importance as part of the oral tradition of Britain, combining Prehistoric, Celtic, Arthurian, Roman, Saxon and Norman levels - each of which has contributed to the many-layered life of the city. The first part contains a unique selection of essays (some printed here for the first time) by experts in their fields, each of whom possesses a unique interest in the legends of these islands, and who have written widely on associated themes. The second part of the book will consist of a Gazetteer of the sites mentioned which are still in existence, together with various other sites of associated interest, compiled by the Editor, the contributors, and members of the London Earth Mysteries Group. This part will be fully updated and extended to include many more sites. The result is a wide ranging and wholly fascinating book, with wide sales application possible. A series of appendixes will include William Stukley's extraordinary document The Brill, which relates to the ancient prehistoric sites around the area of present day St. Pancras, and excerpts from some of the best known 19th and early 20th century works on Legendary London by Lewis Spence and Harold BayleyContributors to the book are: Nigel PennickJohn MatthewsCaroline WiseCaitlín MatthewsCarol Clancy R.J. StewartBernard Nesfield-CooksonGareth KnightRobert StephensonGeraldine BeskinChesca PotterWilliam StukeleyLewis SpenceHarold BayleyAlan V. InsoleRoss Nichols
£16.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Great Book of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table: A New Morte D’Arthur
The most famous and influential work of English fantasy ever published, reimagined for a new generation of readers by John Matthews, one of the world’s leading Arthurian experts, and illustrated by internationally acclaimed Tolkien artist, John Howe. The tales of how the boy Arthur drew the Sword from the Stone, or the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, or how the knights of the Round Table rode out in search of the Holy Grail are known and loved the world over. It all began when an obscure Celtic hero named Arthur stepped on to the stage of history, sometime in the sixth century, and oral tales led to a vast body of stories from which, 900 years later, Thomas Malory wrote the famous Morte D’Arthur. THE GREAT BOOK OF KING ARTHUR presents these well-loved stories for a modern reader, for the first time collecting many tales of Arthur and his knights either unknown to Malory or written in other languages. Here, you will read of Avenable, the girl brought up as a boy who becomes a famous knight. You will learn of Gawain's strange birth, his upbringing amongst poor folk and his final rise to the highest possible rank – Emperor of Rome. There is also the story of Morien whose adventures are as fantastic and exciting as any to be found in the pages of Malory. In addition, there are some of the earliest tales of Arthur, deriving from the tradition of Celtic storytelling. Here is the original Arthur, represented in such powerful stories as ‘The Adventures of Eagle-Boy’, and 'The Coming of Merlin', based on the early medieval text Vita Merlini, which gives a completely new version of the great Enchanter's story. These age-old stories, still as popular today as they were from the Middle Ages onwards, are dramatically brought to life by the luminous paintings and drawings of John Howe, whose work on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies has brought him a world-wide following.
£27.00