Colin Wilson was a highly respected and erudite writer on subjects such as the paranormal, the supernatural and philosophy, with bestsellers including The Outsider and Mysteries. This essential collection of his writings on mysticism, existentialism, consciousness studies, psychology, criminology and the occult is an invaluable introduction. It is the only book to collect extracts from his most important work in one volume including The Outsider (1956), A Criminal History of Mankind (1984), The New Existentialism (1966), The Occult (1971), New Pathways in Psychology (1972) and Mysteries (1978), as well as novels such as The Schumacher Lecture, Visions on the Eiger and The Laurel and Hardy Theory of Consciousness, and his fiction works from The Spider World series and many other texts. Fully revised and updated edition with six essential post-1985 essays and chapters chosen by his bibliographer Colin Stanley and other experts. A Watkins large softback, 315pp.

Divided into three parts, Body, Mind and Spirit, with each expanding on the last, this is a book that so many of us need for our nervous system and mind. Sub-titled 'The Art of Breathing, Mindfulness and Meditation', take this book, pick up a pencil, draw breath and unleash your curiosity and creativity using over 200 guided patterns, shapes and mandalas. Explore a naturally relaxing, flowing breathing rhythm in a technique combining mindfulness, yoga and breathtaking art. There are quotations such as 'He who knows himself is enlightened' from Lao Tzu, lightbulb ideas, how to change your tune and switch frequencies, reframe your brain, get lost in thought, and begin naturally uplifting your mood with these handy tips, OM based on Hindu spirituality, circles of life and divine breath. Beautiful pink and blue art and text, satin pagemarker, 158pp, 75 beautiful illus. and 30 unique and easy activities.

We have just read in the Bristol Post this week that a woman left her teaching job to become a professional mermaid! Maids of the sea, sprung from ancient fish gods, reborn from the tragedy of forbidden love, combined with a seductive power of the half-bird sirens who sang to Odysseus, and a warning against temptation in the Middle Ages, today mermaids exist as everything from birthday party entertainment to a reclaimed site of political and particularly feminist power. Throughout history, everything from manatees and sea-cows to skate and seal have been mistaken for beautiful mermaids. Believed to cure asthma and earache, and warn of danger, here is everything you could ever want to know about these mythical creatures and their aquatic lore. From around the seven seas from Latvia and Iran to Haiti and Estonia, here is the mermaid throughout history and the many names they have been known by like kelpie, nix, sylphe, undine and water nymph and how if they traded their fins for life on land their lifespan would shorten dramatically, they would give up their voices and their tails and in return would be granted terrestrial romance or perhaps even a soul. Beautifully decorated coloured pages with over 100 spectacular artworks. 224pp.

By the author of the bestselling 'The Tutankhamun Prophecies', this book was originally published in 2006 as 'The Celtic Chronicles: The True Story of the Holy Grail'. Using the same knowledge that enabled him to break the codes of the Mayas, Peruvians, Egyptians, and Chinese, Maurice Cotterell now follows the migration of the Celts 4,000 years ago from Asia, across Europe, to Ireland. His account of this epic journey together with his knowledge of the secret codes help him identify and locate the Holy Grail, the actual cup used by Christ and his disciples at the Last Supper. Cotterell explains the true story of the Grail and how it contains the secret super-science of the Sun and the higher orders of spirituality; how it was carried to England by Joseph of Arimathea; how in AD453 it was found by King Arthur who engraved it with the same esoteric information found on the Pyramid of Inscriptions in Palenque, Mexico, and the Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco in Ancient Peru. His discoveries reveal that the Grail does actually radiate light, in accordance with the Arthurian legends, proving that the so-called legends are actually based on facts. Cotterell goes on to show how the holy cup was passed for safe keeping to the Monks of Lindisfarne, who copied the secrets of the Grail into the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Fleeing from Viking raids, the monks carried their treasures to Ireland, explaining how the cup found its way to the Dublin Museum, where it rests today. 241pp in large softback with many illustrations and dozens of colour images.

Spook, ghost, wraith, phantom, spectre - what do they all mean? Are they all synonyms and is there a whole parallel universe out there made up of these entities? Since the world began, the human race has entertained ideas of the dead returning to haunt or guide the living and every civilisation is said to have a belief in spirits and today countless examples are found among the indigenous cultures of North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. Our forebears in the classical traditions of Greece and Rome paid heed to ghostly machinations. Homer described Hades as a place filled with shadowy ghouls that cry out beseeching the living for libations of freshly spilled blood. Battlefields were littered with spirits of the dead. Those who ferry across the Styx in Charon's boat would see shoals of dead souls swarming about the in the Aeneid. Seers, oracles, mediums and séances, haunted houses, headless Anne Boleyn in Bloody Tower, spooks at Hampton Court, poltergeists, apparitions at Versailles, phantom monks, displaced coffins, photographic evidence of ghosts, sightings in hotels and restaurants, workplaces and wars. Read of poets like Robert Graves glimpsing the walking dead, nighttime apparitions at Avebury, a ghost town in Arizona, Flight 401 to Miami and the crash in the Everglades, the phantom Lancaster bomber and phantoms of the stage, Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and spiritualism, ghost books and films, the wail of the banshee and ghost hunting. Whether you want to explore the disappearances surrounding the Bermuda Triangle or uncover the ghostly goings-on in the Mary Celeste, here are spine-tingling stories of ghosts past and present and unexplained events worldwide. 144 well illustrated pages, woodcut illus.