Myth & Mystery from The Real Book Shop

Secret Societies in one form or another have existed throughout the history of human culture. But what is their appeal? What is it that makes so-called respectable people indulge in peculiar ceremonies, dressed in fanciful costumes uttering blood-curdling oaths of loyalty with the threat of death hanging over them should they reveal the inner workings of the cult? Nick Harding… Read more about this item

Who were the Illuminati and who are they now? Take Robert Howell s severe wake up call if you value your liberty and privacy and join the battle to protect counterculture before it is too late. Governments, dictators and religious leaders have clung to power via force or manipulation throughout history. But secret societies have grown, working in the shadows… Read more about this item

It appears to the writer that there is urgent need of more "nature books"-books that are scraped clear of fiction and which display only the carefully articulated skeleton of fact. Hence this little volume, presented with some hesitation and more modesty. Various chapters have, at intervals, appeared in the pages of various publications. The continued narrative is now published for… Read more about this item

For over 60 years, spanning from his childhood to the Cold War to the current day, former Israeli paratrooper and Six Day War veteran Uri Geller has been a major enigma. Is he merely one of the most convincing stage magicians in history, a multimillionaire entertainer, courted by presidents and rock stars? Or is the now 67 year-old UK resident… Read more about this item

This book reveals the raw truth behind the colourful legends about Arthur and his Round Table, his battles, his court and his death. Blake and Lloyd prove that Arthur was once a real Dark Age warlord with an extensive family and a band of fearsome warriors at his command. His life story was politicised and mythologised by the very forces… Read more about this item

The first book to examine the bizarre sequence of deaths--all attributed to the "Curse of Tutankhamun"--that occurred in London's 1920s West End. Throughout the 1920 and 1930s, London was gripped by the supposed curse of Tutankhamun, the Egyptian boy-king of antiquity, whose tomb was uncovered in 1923. Over the next few years more than 20 of those involved in the tomb's… Read more about this item

In Spies of the Bible, Rose Mary Sheldon highlights the importance of espionage and traces the role intelligence has played from the Jewish exodus from Egypt to the Bar Kochba Revolt. The Near East has been fiercely contested by various parties for thousands of years, and much of the fighting was conducted not in large-scale battles and confrontations, but in… Read more about this item

These are the uber-brats of the Bible kids who killed, committed incest, sold siblings into slavery, or asked for an enemy s head on a dish. Each of the 28 stories in this book focus on a boy or girl from the Bible whose conduct was the stuff of parents nightmares. Some of these kids repented; others did not. Yet… Read more about this item

There has been a tendency until recently to think of our history and ancestors in terms of epochs. Schoolbooks of the 1960s and 70s insisted that we were little more than savages until the civilized Romans came along; then the Romans became Christians and converted us too; then the Saxons arrived and we converted them; then the Vikings, and so-on… Read more about this item

This search for the real King Arthur, behind Dark Age and medieval legend is a fascinating piece of historical, archaeological and scientific detective work.

Foreword by Robert McDowell, President of the Folklore Society. In England today we enjoy a rich diversity of folk traditions, many of which can trace their beginnings back hundreds of years. They stem from every phase of our antiquity and embody all the peoples who have traditionally enriched our culture. In this book we visit some of the best known… Read more about this item

Continuing its policy of publishing extended explorations of Arthurian subjects, this eighth volume of Arthurian Literature contains four articles. Elizabeth Archibald addresses the reasons for the insertion of the story of Mordred's incestuous birth into many versions of the Arthurian legend (including Malory's) from the early 13th century on, and follows its development from the Vulgate Cycle to later Arthurian… Read more about this item

This collection of new essays on Arthurian themes contains one on Layamon, two on Chrétien, and one on Victorian art. They are as follows: Oliver Goulden, `Erec et Enide': The Central Section The opening and closing sections of Erec et Enide have always attracted critical attention: Dr Goulden argues that the central section, often neglected, is crucial to our understanding… Read more about this item

The tenth volume of Arthurian Literature continues some ofthe themes of earlier issues, as well as exploring unfamiliar andcontroversial ground. The second part of CHRISTINE POULSON's survey of the Arthurian legend in 19th-century art is an analysisby subject of the works catalogued by artist in Arthurian Literature IX. A. H. W. SMITH provides a substantial update to MaryWildman's bibliography of… Read more about this item

This latest issue of Arthurian Literature continues the tradition of the journal in combining theoretical studies with editions of primary Arthurian texts. There is a special focus on Chrétien de Troyes, with articles considering his identity, providing a new reading of Le Chevalier de la Charrete, and giving an account of a discovery of an important new fragment of the… Read more about this item

This new volume of Arthurian Literature, the first under its new editor Keith Busby, is devoted to the Roman van Walewein(The Romance of Walewein (Gawain)) by Penninc and Pieter Vostaert, an undisputed gem of Middle Dutch literature which has recently become accessible to an English-speaking audience through translation. Essentially a fairy-tale written into Arthurian romance, it presents a Gawain quite… Read more about this item

In 1981 the first Arthurian Bibliography appeared, an exhaustive alphabetical author-listing of all critical material recorded in the standard Arthurian bibliographies up to 1978. This was followed in 1983 by the second volume, giving full indexes by topic, key-word and individual work/author to form a complete subject-index of every topic in Arthurian literature. Summaries and reviews were also indicated where… Read more about this item

A must for any self-respecting library. NOTES AND QUERIES A standard work of reference. ENGLISH STUDIES With the appearance in 1999 of the very extensive interim volume covering the years 1978 to 1992, the Arthurian Bibliography became once more the critical source for Arthurian Scholars. This fourth volume of entries, culled in the main from BBSIA, covers the years 1993 to… Read more about this item

Camlan - King Arthur's last battle. Where was it fought? What is the evidence for this location? Who were the combatants? Who were the named survivors? Why did it happen? Where did Athur die? Where was he buried? When was this? Who was the Merlin buried on Bardsey Island?

Pocket - sized book outlining information of the legendary King Arthur, with photographs of places of interest and items associated with the myth. King Arthur is the favourite of romantics and the bane of critical historians. There will never be absolute proof of his existence, for our main sources are more or less deliberate fictions, but there is enough to… Read more about this item