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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2025

        Queer as folklore

        The hidden queer history of myths and monsters

        by Sacha Coward

        A celebration of queer history like you've never seen it before. Queer as folklore travels across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new. Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward takes you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul's Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the 'queerly departed' along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows and created safe spaces in underworlds. But these forgotten narratives tell stories of resilience that deserve to be heard. Join any Pride march and you will see a glorious display of papier-mâché unicorn heads, drag queens in mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. These are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots. To truly understand who queer people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2021

        Tales of magic, tales in print

        by Willem De Blecourt

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2025

        Witchcraft, magic and culture 1736–1951

        by Owen Davies

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        Teaching, Language & Reference
        February 2020

        A writer's guide to Ancient Rome

        by Carey Fleiner, Jerome de Groot

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        African history
        July 2013

        The ancient Greeks at war

        by Louis Rawlings

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2023

        The illusion of the Burgundian state

        by Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, Christopher Fletcher

        On 25 January 1474, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, appeared before his subjects in Dijon. Robed in silk, gold and precious jewels and wearing a headpiece that gave the illusion of a crown, he made a speech in which he cryptically expressed his desire to become a king. Three years later, Charles was killed at the battle of Nancy, an event that plunged the Great Principality of Burgundy into chaos. This book, innovative and essential, not only explores Burgundian history and historiography but offers a complete synthesis about the nature of politics in this region, considered both from the north and the south. Focusing on political ideologies, a number of important issues are raised relating to the medieval state, the signification of the nation under the 'Ancien Regime', the role of warfare in the creation of political power and the impact of political loyalties in the exercise of government. In doing so, the book challenges a number of existing ideas about the Burgundian state.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        July 2013

        A Trick to Catch the Old One

        By Thomas Middleton

        by David Bevington, Paul Mulholland, Richard Dutton, Alison Findlay, Helen Ostovich

        This is the first single volume edition of A Trick to Catch the Old One for many decades. This edition presents a thoroughly reconsidered text based on collation of all known copies of the 1608 quarto (including material unnoticed by earlier editors). Textual analysis draws on detailed internal investigation and the printer's wider practice to propose that relatively improvisational procedures and a paper quota governed A Trick's printing operations. Discovery of an overlooked record revises the date of court performance to 1 January 1607, with implications for the play's early history. Critical discussion freshly examines the play's multi-layered ironic texture in relation to such issues as the status of women, marriage's relation to prostitution and vice versa, and the contemporary marriage market. And the Courtesan receives special attention in the context of this overarching ironic scheme. An extensive stage history explores original staging and documents revivals to 2011. The commentary is the most wide-ranging and comprehensive of all modern editions. ;

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        July 2021

        Old Fortunatus

        By Thomas Dekker

        by David McInnis

        With its fantasy of magical travel and inexhaustible riches, Thomas Dekker's Old Fortunatus is the quintessential early modern journeying play. The adventures of Fortunatus and his sons, aided by a magical purse and wishing-hat, offers the period's most overt celebration of the pleasures of travel, as well as a sustained critique of the dangers of intemperance and prodigality. Written following a period of financial difficulty for Dekker, the play is also notable for its fascination with the symbolic, mercantile and ethical uses of gold. This Revels Plays edition is the first fully annotated, single-volume critical edition of Old Fortunatus. It offers scholarly discussion of the play's performance and textual history, including attention to the German version printed and performed in the early seventeenth century. It provides a long overdue critical reappraisal of this unjustly neglected play.

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        Children's & YA

        The Candy Guild (1). The Magic Pact

        by Tanja Voosen/ Viktoria Gavrilenko

        The most magical adventure since the discovery of chocolate! Do you believe in magic and miracles? Everyone in the little town of Belony takes magic and miracles for granted – everyone except Elina, who thinks it’s all a load of nonsense. That is, until her nervous neighbour Charlie happens to get hold of a bar of chocolate that has a very strange effect on her. Suddenly Elina is convinced that Charlie has fallen under a spell. Of all people, it’s shy Robin who comes to the girl’s rescue. He is a member of a Candy Guild family – people who have the ability to create magic sweets that will help others. This is how he knows that only the mysterious Candy Guild can lift the curse on Charlie. With a suitcase full of magic sweets, the three of them set out on a dangerous quest. Because not everyone keeps to the pact that magic sweets should only be used to do good… The Candy Guild. The Magic Pact is the first in a new series of magic-fantasy books for children of 9+ - as enchanting as chocolate and as wild as a Christmas cracker!

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2025

        Folklore

        A journey through the past and present

        by Owen Davies, Ceri Houlbrook

        A gripping guide to the weird yet everyday world of British folklore. In this ground-breaking book, two leading experts provide the definitive guide to British folklore past and present. Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook explore folklore in all its remarkable variations, from village rituals and fairy tales to UFO legends and internet fanfiction. Travelling through a landscape of witches, wizards and wicker men, they reveal how folklore has been researched and written about in the past and show how it continues to be lived in the present. At the same time, they provide the reader with a valuable toolkit for understanding how to interpret the diverse examples given. The book's key message is that folklore is much more than the fossilised remains of a distant, rural past. Folklore is and always has been ubiquitous, dynamic and political. It is a living tradition that draws from many sources, including migrant communities, and is forever being renewed and updated.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2023

        Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 99/1

        The Aldine Edition of the Ancient Greek Epistolographers: Roots and Legacy

        by Julene Abad Del Vecchio

        This special issue of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library is devoted to the Aldine edition of the Ancient Greek epistolographers. Published in Venice in 1499 by Aldus Manutius, the Aldine edition was the first printed edition of most of the thirty-six Greek letter collections that it contains. As such, it embodies the intersection between the medieval epistolary anthologies that predated it and the printed editions of Greek epistolographic collections that followed, which were primarily based on its text. In recent decades, the Aldien edition has been the subject of important works, which have sought to analyse its contents and sources. This issue explores the Aldine edition from three perspectives: its relationship to the epistolary collections found in medieval manuscripts, its relationship to the printed editions that followed it and its legacy and value for the modern scholar studying Ancient Greek epistolography.

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        The Arts
        January 2019

        From Perversion to Purity

        The stardom of Catherine Deneuve

        by Lisa Downing, Sue Harris

        Catherine Deneuve is indisputably one of the world's most celebrated actresses, both in her native France and throughout the world. Her career has spanned five decades during which she has worked with the most significant of French auteurs, as well as forging partnerships with international directors such as Bunuel and Polanski. The Deneuve star persona has attained such iconic status that it can now symbolise the very essence of French womanhood and civic identity. In this wide-ranging and authoritative collection of essays by a selection of international film academics and writers, the Deneuve persona is scrutinised and illuminated. Beyond the glamorous iconographic status of Yves Saint Laurent's muse, and the epitome of sexual inviolability, Deneuve's status as actress is foregrounded. The book will be essential reading for students and lecturers in star studies.

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        Children's & YA

        Magic Owls in Featherland (1). Athenaria's Secret

        by Ina Brandt/Irene Mohr

        Flora is very excited: together with her magic owl Goldwing, she is to be part of a new team. The owl rulers of the Magical Kingdom have summoned them to Featherland, a hidden place in a mysterious monastery. There they meet the snowy owl Nordis, the spectacled owl Claro and, of course, Jona, who always tries to compete with Flora. How will they ever manage to make a team? It’s not long before they are given their first job: during the night of the next full moon they must help one another to awaken the magic of Featherland – and this proves to be more difficult than expected. Because suddenly Claro disappears from the face of the earth. And without him, no magic can ever succeed…

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2025

        Framing

        The social art of influence

        by Mikael Klintman

        A smart, incisive toolkit for understanding how the framing of information influences the way we think about it. In today's chaotic media landscape, working out who and what to believe is a daunting task. Lies and misinformation are only part of the problem - often the way a story is presented has just as much effect on us as what the story is. In Framing, sociologist Mikael Klintman offers a cutting-edge toolkit for exposing and analysing the rhetoric that saturates our everyday lives. Combining insights from the social sciences, economics and evolutionary biology, he lays out a four-part approach to understanding how information is 'framed' for us, built around the key elements of texture, temperature, position and size. Demonstrating this approach through an array of real-world examples, from climate change denial to the subtle messaging of caviar ads, Klintman reveals how canny communicators mislead us without relying on overt deception. At the same time, he probes the deeper evolutionary and cultural roots of our susceptibility to frames.

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        Children's & YA

        The Little Owl Witch (2). Full Moon Magic at Midnight

        by Katja Alves/ Marta Balmaseda

        Exciting new adventures in the Enchanted Forest. The mighty tree witches send out invitations to take part in the great Witch Competition, which is only held once every hundred years. The prize is a superb extra magical power. Just the thing for a young owl witch like Petunia, think the seven litte owls, and so they secretly enter their witch for the competition. There is just one catch: whoever comes last in solving the extremely difficult magic problems must hand over her witch’s broomstick. Oh dear! The trouble is, all the other witches are very old and are real experts in the art of magic… Fortunately, and as always, Petunia can rely on her little owls!

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        Children's & YA

        Owl Magic (13). The Mystery of the White Horse

        by Ina Brandt/Irene Mohr

        It’s just like a fairy tale. In the forest Flora stumbles on a little house with a garden that’s overgrown with roses. But the house is about to be sold. Not only that, but Flora learns from the owner’s daughter that a white horse has been living for a long time in the stable…but now he’s disappeared! Together with her magic owl Goldwing, Flora tries to find the terrified animal. Will the two of them manage to make their way through the jungle of roses and win the confidence of the white stallion?

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