During the long, cold December weeks leading up to Christmas, as we spend our time frantically panicking about the financial side of the festive season, it's all too easy to forget the traditional nativity story. The real meaning of Christmas and the traditions that have existed for generations are shunted aside as we worry about how many shopping days we have left and how we're going to fit that monster turkey into the oven. In this charming book, Patrick Harding breathes new life into the traditions of Christmas, unravelling myths and mysteries surrounding our favourite time of year. The Christmas Book is a treasure chest of fascinating facts and tasty morsels, all in one delightful and handy volume. From setting the record straight about Jesus' birth, to explaining what a genuine Yule log is, to tracking the evolution of the Christmas card, there's something in here to entertain everyone, young and old alike. The fascinating read is guaranteed to add some much-needed spice to the festive season and will shake the Scrooge out of even the most cynical reader...
Mushroom collecting is becoming increasingly popular, and while a comprehensive identification guide is essential, the folklore, facts and fables, recipes and stories that have accumulated since ancient times create part of the charm of these strange organisms. Oddly, these facts have never been compiled in one book.
This is an account of all things Christmas-related, from the Gospels to mistletoe, from Rudolph to shopping. It explores the myths, customs, confusions, rituals, and icons in an informative way, suitable for all the family.
Luke is an angel fallen from grace. Having caused in Heaven the loss of a gem without equal, he is banished to earth as an ordinary human being, until he can rectify his slip. The stone has gone through the roof of a church, the jealously guarded preserve of Father Archibald Lockjaw. Sensing its great value, the priest takes the gem to a firm of jewelers in New York. Luke assumes the guise of the townas patron saint and starts hotfoot after the lost stone. Despite the efforts of two violent characters, one possessed by the Devil himself, Luke reaches the stone as it is about to be cut into smaller pieces for jewelry. He knows he must prevent this at all costs. Locked in the stone is an energy so vast that, on being released, would obliterate the earth and the entire solar system in a horrendous flash of light.
The mysterious death of Dr. Hoyle a an archaeologist studying a culture that flourished thousands of years ago a arouses his brother, Jedas, suspicion. Although his only clues are the snapshot of a beautiful woman and a crystal of unusual properties, he decides to investigate. Arriving in Bolivia, he discovers that Dr. Hoyleas murder is connected to a place lost in the mist of legend, its exact location known to one man alone. A roller-coaster of events leads Jed Hoyle to a shaman who conceals his true identity under the guise of an old man. Custodian of the Secret Ways, the shaman is also Keeper of the Court of the Dead: a maze of chambers filled with the treasures of a long-vanished civilization. Using the crystal, Jed gains access to this secret place, where he and his companions are trapped by an ancient mechanism. Water and a relic hold the key to their escape.
In Book One -The First Secret - we learned of the investigation into the mystery surrounding the sudden death of Baroness Isabelle (Bella) Harding CMG, GC - the woman lauded in MI6's secret halls as their greatest ever spymaster. Book Two - The Journal of Bella Harding - reveals the unforgettable truth about her life in her own words and the secrets she brought with her to the grave. This is an account of a life lived to its fullest...commencing with the young Bella Harding parachuting into Occupied France in 1943 only to be captured and tortured by the Gestapo...her recruitment by MI6...her daring missions behind the Iron Curtain...her illicit love affairs...and finally the extraordinary story of betrayal at the heart of the Service to which she dedicated her life and loved so much. But the journal is more than the life of a spy...extraordinary and all that it was ...it is the story of the Cold War intelligence battle as seen from the inside. Here are the Cold Warriors; the real people and the real events of the forty-year life and death struggle between the KGB and MI6. This is the world of the spy as never before revealed. Book Two of The Virtual Spy (www.thevirtualspy.com)
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