Graeme Davis

The Ancient Ones are coming to consume our world, and only the bold investigators of Arkham Horror stand in their way, in this chilling collection of eldritch novellas.Hour of the Huntress by Dave Gross – the mysterious disappearance of dilettante Jenny Barnes’ beloved sister triggers a frantic search through Arkham’s darkest shadows. The Dirge of Reason by Graeme Davis – for federal agent Roland Banks, investigating a bizarre incident exposes him to the supernatural horrors of Arkham. Ire of the Void by Richard Lee Byers – the astronomer and professor Norman Withers finds himself the subject of a strange creature’s gaze when he agrees to assist in a fellow scientist’s weird experiment. The Deep Gate by Chris A Jackson – sailor Silas Marsh must return to Innsmouth and confront his harrowing nightmares when he stumbles on a tome foretelling the end of the world.

In the stories of the ancient Vikings, Thor is a warrior without equal, who wields his mighty hammer in battles against trolls, giants, and dragons. He is the god of storms and thunder, who rides to war in a chariot pulled by goats, and who is fated to fall in battle with the Midgard Serpent during Ragnarok, the end of all things. This book collects the greatest myths and legends of the thunder god, while also explaining their historical context and their place in the greater Norse mythology. It also covers the history of Thor as a legendary figure, how he was viewed by different cultures from the Romans to the Nazis, and how he endures today as a popular heroic figure.

It was the Vikings, not Christopher Columbus, who made the first European discovery of America. It was the Vikings, not the Pilgrim Fathers, who were the first Europeans settlers in America, and it was probably the Vikings who first used the name America. Around a thousand years ago the Vikings crossed the North Atlantic and established their settlements on the American continent. Yet today both Europe and North America treat the Vikings in North America as if it were no more than a curious footnote to their histories – as if the Vikings made just a handful of voyages with little impact. This book challenges this outdated view. We now know that the Vikings travelled widely in North America, both on the east coast and in the high Arctic and Hudson Bay. Today we realise that Viking presence in America lasted nearly five centuries, and its legacy inspired much of the post-Columban exploration of North America.

Readers are well aware that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein: few know how many other tales of terror she created. In addition to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote some surprisingly effective horror stories. The year after Little Women appeared, Louisa May Alcott published one of the first mummy tales. These ladies weren’t alone. From the earliest days of Gothic and horror fiction, women were exploring the frontiers of fear, dreaming dark dreams that will still keep you up at night. More Deadly than the Male includes unexpected horror tales by Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and forgotten writers like Mary Cholmondely and Charlotte Riddell, whose work deserves a modern audience. Readers will be drawn in by the familiar names and intrigued by their rare stories. In The Beckside Boggle, Alice Rea brings a common piece of English folklore to hair-raising life, while Helene Blavatsky, best known as the founder of the spiritualist Theosophical Society, conjures up a solid and satisfying ghost story in The Cave of the Echoes. Edith Wharton’s great novel The Age of Innocence won her the Pulitzer prize, yet her horror stories are known only to a comparative few. Readers will discover lost and forgotten women who wrote horror every bit as effectively as their male contemporaries. They will learn about their lives and careers, the challenges they faced as women working in a male-dominated field, the way they overcame those challenges, and the way they approached the genre—which was often subtler, more psychological, and more disturbing.

In the dying days of World War II, Nazi Germany spent increasingly large amounts of its dwindling manufacturing capability on the construction of a small fleet of flying saucers capable of travel beyond the atmosphere. While these saucers were too few in number to affect the eventual outcome of the war, they did allow for a small, but fanatical Nazi group to escape Germany, first to Antarctica, and then on to the moon!For the first time, the history of the Nazi space program has been revealed - with a focus on the design, construction, and layout of the moonbase. Using detailed maps, the entire moonbase is reconstructed, noting the locations of various important features, such as weapon emplacements, the Vril generator, the air recyclers and water extractors. The book also covers the various attempt by the allies to overcome this last Nazi stronghold through both subterfuge and outright battle.

Even before Theseus descended into the labyrinth to face the Minotaur, he was already a famous hero and a veteran of many battles. The son of a man, a woman, and the god Poseidon, he’d journey far across Ancient Greece, fighting numerous monsters including the Periphetes ‘the clubber’, the Crymmyon Sow, and the insane demigod, Procrustes ‘the stretcher’. He also survived several assassination attempts, including one by Medea, the famous witch-wife of Jason. Despite these adventures, it was on Crete that Theseus faced his greatest challenge. Taking the place of a sacrificial tribute to the king of Crete, Theseus used his wits and charm to convince the princess Ariadne and the famous inventor Daedalus to help him defeat the dreaded Minotaur, a hideous combination of man and bull that lived in a labrythine dungeon. In this book, Graeme Davis draws upon the classic sources to retell the great myths and legends of Theseus, the founder-king of Athens, and backs this narrative with a factual examination of the myth, its variations, and its development over time. Replete with both classical and modern illustrations, this book is a concise exploration of one of the most enduring myths of Ancient Greece.

Born in the dark days of the great crusades, the warrior monks of the Knights Templar vowed to defend pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. Yet strangely, there are few historical records of the Templars ever fulfilling this task. Instead, their history is one of bloodshed and conquest, wealth and power, dark secrets and conspiracies. Today, the story of the Knights Templar is intimately linked with the story of the Holy Grail. But what exactly is this ancient artifact, and how has it been used to manipulate history for the last one thousand years? This book, based on the notes of the recently deceased historian, Dr. Emile Fouchet, attempts to unlock the secrets of the Knights Templar. It begins with an examination of their historical origins, their growth in the early middle-ages, and their supposed destruction under the charges of heresy. From there, it uses the clues left by the Templars themselves to reconstruct their secret journeys as they moved the Holy Grail from Europe to the New World and back. It also charts the secret, three-way war that is still being fought between the Templars, the Freemasons, and the Catholic Church. Finally, the book reveals the greatest of all Templar conspiracies, the attempt to found a new world order under the auspices of the European Union.

'Brick walls' occur everywhere and all the time in genealogy research, but with this book you can take your British Isles family tree back further. Solving Genealogy Problems will: - Help you find new records, including unusual ones genealogists often don't know about; and make the best use of them when you do find them. - Suggest new ideas for looking at old problems. - Give additional ideas on using the census - then more ideas on using census substitutes when the census doesn't have the answers. - Suggest ways of finding elusive births, marriages and deaths - and then of making progress anyway, even when you absolutely cannot find them. This book covers all periods of British Isles genealogy. The new frontiers of genealogy are considered for the hope they give on even the most intractable research block, and the possibility they allow of building even the most difficult of family trees.Contents: 1. RECOGNISING BRICK WALLS; 2. UNDERSTANDING BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS; 3. FINDING BMD BIRTHS; 4. FINDING BMD MARRIAGES; 5. FINDING BMD DEATHS; 6. CENSUS SOLUTIONS; 7. UNDERSTANDING PARISH REGISTERS; 8. FINDING PARISH REGISTER CHRISTENINGS; 9. FINDING PARISH REGISTERS MARRIAGES; 10. FINDING PARISH REGISTER BURIALS AND MEMORIAL INSCRIPTIONS; 11. USING NEWSPAPERS AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE; 12. GETTING MORE FROM WILLS AND ADMINISTRATIONS; 13. DIRECTORIES AS A CENSUS SUBSTITUTE; 14. ELECTORAL ROLL AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE; 15. OTHER ALTERNATIVE SOURCES; 16. YET MORE SOURCES: THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACTS AND THE GENEALOGIST; 17. PUBLISHING YOUR FAMILY TREE; 18. ORAL HISTORY; 19. LOCAL HISTORY; 20. DESCRIPTIONS OF AN ANCESTOR'S HOME; 21. CLUSTER GENEALOGY AND COMMUNITIES; 22. MILITARY RECORDS; 23. OCCUPATIONAL RECORDS; 24. IRELAND: PROBLEMS AND INSPIRATION; 25. INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGY; 26. PHOTOGRAPHS; 27. EARLY GENEALOGY; 28. GENETICS AND GENEALOGY; 29. HERITAGE; 30. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS FOR RESEARCH; 31. THE GENEALOGY INDUSTRY; APPENDIX: THE TOP 10 BRICK WALL TIPS; INDEX.