Now in paperback, an exploration of the myths of England’s deceptively bucolic rolling hills and country lanes believed to be created and shaped by the Dark Lord himself. According to legend, the English landscape—so calm on the surface—is really the Devil’s work. Cloven Country tells of rocks hurled into place and valleys carved out by infernal labor. The Devil’s hideous strength laid down great roads in one night and left scars everywhere as the hard stone melted like wax under those burning feet. With roots in medieval folklore of giants and spirits, this is not the Satan of prayer, but a clumsy ogre, easily fooled by humankind. When a smart cobbler or cunning young wife outwitted him, they struck a blow for the underdog. Only the wicked squire and grasping merchant were beyond redemption, carried off by a black huntsman in the storm. Cloven Country offers a fascinating panorama of these decidedly sinister English tales.

Like fluttering shards of stained glass, butterflies possess a unique power to pierce and stir the human soul. Indeed, the ancient Greeks explicitly equated the two in a single word, psyche, so that from early times butterflies were not only a form of life, but also an idea. Profound and deeply personal, written with both wisdom and wit, Peter Marren’s Rainbow Dust explores this idea of butterflies—the why behind the mysterious power of these insects we do not flee, but rather chase. At the age of five, Marren had his “Nabokov Moment,” catching his first butterfly and feeling the dust of its colored scales between his fingers. It was a moment that would launch a lifetime’s fascination rivaling that of the famed novelist—a fascination that put both in good company. From the butterfly collecting and rearing craze that consumed North America and Europe for more than two hundred years (a hobby that in some cases bordered on madness), to the potent allure of butterfly iconography in contemporary advertisements and their use in spearheading calls to conserve and restore habitats (even though butterflies are essentially economically worthless), Marren unveils the many ways in which butterflies inspire us as objects of beauty and as symbols both transient and transcendent. Floating around the globe and through the whole gamut of human thought, from art and literature to religion and science, Rainbow Dust is a cultural history rather than merely a natural one, a tribute to butterflies’ power to surprise, entertain, and obsess us. With a sway that far surpasses their fragile anatomy and gentle beat, butterfly wings draw us into the prismatic wonders of the natural world—and, in the words of Marren, these wonders take flight.

According to English folklore, red dragonflies (sometimes referred to as "devil's darning needles") sew shut the mouths and sometimes the ears and eyes of people who misbehave. This carousel book celebrates the myth with comically disturbing illustrations of people who have thread twined around their eyes and lips. Clear plastic printed with red dragonflies overlays the illustrations. The book is bound in light grey paper covered boards with red title to front cover and artist's name to rear cover. It is silkscreen printed in turquoise and red inks. A red twine closure wraps around the book when not in use and can also be tied to hold it open in carousel format.-from publisher

Each one of this collection's poignant, finely crafted stories, which in character and setting are often reminiscent of the works of Alice Munro, introduces ordinary people confronting their personal, but not uncommon demons.

Encyclopedias.

Myths have long held that darning needles are nothing more than the devil's own mouthpieces. In exchange for being transformed from dull, gray, wingless grub bodies into beautiful winged dragons, they carry the Devil's evil whispers to the ears of men, women, and little children everywhere. Nigel is the largest, strongest, and brightest blue dragonfly ever to emerge from the water and the first to break this pact. He defies the Devil's minions and refuses to play his part, but can a simple, single darning needle hope to stand against ol' Scratch himself and change the fate of all his kind?