Anyone following this blog over the years will be aware my taste in reading can be a tad ecliptic. Well buckle up buttercup, ecliptic was three turns back.

Completely Ribald : for your pleasure. By Mr Arthur Foot and Miss Tilly Maydme

The Cogkneys are one of the alter egos of Karl & Andrea Burnett who have been entertaining steampunks and others for over fifteen years with ridiculous songs, ribald jokes and props that are fully in keeping with the music hall traditions, mixed with all kinds of modern pop culture refences. This book contains those fifteen years of lyrics and poetry with such delights as

‘Hot Glue Gun Blues’ which if you have ever tried to put together a cosplay costume’ of any kind you will recognise.

‘Oh those naughty Tentacles’ because lets face it why not

And the seminal work ‘My Childhood Sweetheart is Featured in an Erotic Daguerreotype I Purchased From the Tabacconists’ (something of a nod to the 80’s classic ‘Centrefold’ by the J Giles band)

Fifteen years is a long time, and there is a lot of this sort of thing… and a wonderful thing it is too. But there are also several short prose stories and a novella which feature the Burnetts alter egos, and the same music hall style risky humour and interplay that anyone who has seen the Cogkneys live will recognise and laugh along with.

This is a very silly book, a heavy tomb as well as it was fifteen years in the making, it is also not a book you sit down to read, its a book you leave on the coffee table and pick up occasionally while you drink your tea to peruse for a couple of minutes… An hour later you will remember you acctually intended to do something else, and you will , the moment you stop giggling…

You should buy a copy for that reason alone, and if you get a chance to see the Cogkenys live, or any of their many alter egos, pop along. You will be entertained, I promise you this.

A final note, Karl Burnett once appeared in a play called ‘The Drag King in Yellow’ this was his finest achievement as the play is one of the greatest works in the history of human civilization. He fails to mention it this at all in this book, which seems something of an oversight…

Labrys & Horns: An Introduction to Modern Minoan Paganism By Laura Perry

I am the worlds worst pagan. I say this because I follow no particular tradition but my own. I have a self constructed belief system based on a heady mix of paganism and quantum physics. You can read something of this here if you wish. Because of this I read a fair amount of physics journals as well as modern pagan books. I also have little rituals, that I don’t even recognise as rituals. But as I say I am the worlds worst pagan, but I am open to pagan thought.

Laura Perry is someone who came into my orbit (on face book , blue sky and blogs) because of Nimue Brown. Laura is not the worlds worst pagan… She is an expert in Minoan culture and a practising member (and one of the leaders/founders) of Ariadne’s Tribe, a world wide pagan group following the tradition and practises of Modern Minoan Paganism.

Partly this book explores the history and culture of the Minoan civilization that flourished on Crete between 1900 and 1400 BCE. Before the Mycenaean Greeks, and a thousand years before the classical Greeks. To put that in perspective, if we were now classical Greece around the time of Plato, the Minoan’s culture for us ended before the Norman invasion… Minoan culture was a long… time ago, Old Kingdom Egypt ago. What we know about them is based mainly on archology, luckily there is a lot of archology.

What we know about Minoan religious practises is also based mainly on archology, and not a little guess work, though very educated guesses informed by the archology and what was recorded by the ancient Greeks a thousand years later which would also have been guess work and biased by their own beliefs which to an extent grew out of Minoan culture.

It is an interpretation of Minoan belief systems based on years of research that forms the other part of this book, along with guidance and practical advice, for those that may want to follow the path of Ariadne’s Tribe, or incorporate aspects of Minoan ritual into their own lives.

This book is on every level fascinating no matter if you feel a personal connection to Minoan belief or you just wish to explore one of the most ancient Mediterranean cultures and walk the footsteps of our forbearers. It is also written with an accessible richness of humanity to it that makes it a joy to read, no matter what you may believe, or be open to believing…

A final note. Above my front door, on the inside of the house, facing into the house, is a greensman mask, hand painted by me, that I hung there several years ago because it felt the right place to hang it. I reach up and touch it when ever I leave the house to go out into the world for a while. It is not a conscious thing, and before I read this book I had no idea why I did so, indeed barely realised I did. Now I know why, because even the worlds worst pagan needs little rituals to ground themselves in this world…

Devilish Preludes by Ben Sawyer

Ben Sawyer is a lovely fellow author from York who writes about Holly Trinity, a sleeping protector of the city who awakens when she is needed to fight monsters and ghosts, with an umbrella and a Kate Bush mix tape. I know Ben because he writes for the Harvey Duckman anthologies and I have shared many a table with him at conventions trying to convince people to buy dead trees covered in ink.

Last year he released a short story in ebook on Amazon and I pointed out he could have made it into an admittedly slip, paperback, which he could put on the table at conventions and sell the way drug dealers offer dime bags for free to get people hooked… But with dead trees cover in ink. He ignored this advice, so I berated him some more when I next saw him in Leeds at a convention, after I had been drinking with my son the night before and had the worlds worst hang over having been dragged to the dive bar he manages till five in the morning.

Apparently Ben finally took my advice… This however is not that book…

This short tome holds within it three short stories that expand the Hollyverse. For a start only one of the stories features Holly herself, and only one is set in York. The first is some what chilling and involves the mystery of who puts rope swings on trees. The second involves rules, and ‘The Department’ of whom Ben could write a while series of novels I suspect (and may encourage him to do so) . The third, well I have not read the third yet for a reason but I have no doubt it will be fabulous.

If you have never read any of Bens, Holly Trinity novels, you should dip your toes in the water with this little book. If you have read both of Bens current Holly novels ( the third is due in October this year) you will need no encouragement to read this book, so get on with it.

A final note, the reason I have not read the third story in this book is I have not yet finished Bens second novel because my to read pile is rediculous…

A Final Final note: For various reason I have not completely finished (or at least finished with) all three of these books, not entirely, The Cockney’s because its a coffee table book, and I have lost my coffee table, so it is sat on my desk. I delve into it now and again when I want a smile. Laura’s because in parts it’s a refence book on practical paganism and you never finish a book like that, you return to it constantly, and Bens because I need to finish Monsters at the gate first.

I reviewed them now because it felt like the time to do so .