An Old Favourite Book

When I was young, around 11-12, I found a book in my school library that I absolutely LOVED. It was about Witches, ghosts, werewolves, and fairies, and though it was meant for young people it actually had a lot of good, factual information. Most such books I'd come across dismissed such topics as being from more ignorant times, but this one presented things in a pretty straightforward manner. Being an English book, it even went into the Cunning Folk tradition, which was the first I'd ever heard of such a thing (before, I'd always been told that Witches were imaginary, even though I knew better; I was thrilled to find proof that I was right!) I was especially taken by the illustrations, which were reproductions of old woodcuts and photographs of modern Witchcraft artifacts (one of which I believe is in the Boscastle museum.)

Unfortunately, being young as I was, I never wrote down the title of the book, and when I went on to high school I almost forgot about it. I wished, now and again, that I had a copy of my own, but I didn't know the title or the author, and eventually gave it up as a lost cause. A few days ago, however, I was searching Amazon for new books, when a title jumped out at me. "Ghosts, Witches, and Things Like That" by Roderick Hunt. I clicked on it, and though it didn't have an image, the description sounded familiar. "Could this be that book I used to love?" I asked myself. Well, only one way to find out. I ordered it (for a very good price, I might add) and, two days later, it's just arrived.....and it's the right one!

I feel like I am taking a stroll down Memory Lane, and the book is just as amazing as I remember it being. If anything, I can appreciate it MORE now because I know so much more about the subject than I did at the time. For a big geared towards children (though I think when this book was written, they didn't dumb things down so much for kids) it's really a good source of information, and it also has various recipes, songs, poems, and Hallowe'en activities to do. I'm going to post a few pics here of it, to show you just how awesome it is. If you can find a copy, I highly recommend it. Enjoy!