The Garden Of Janus

This early work of poetry, by Aleister Crowley, was originally published in 1909. Born in Royal Leamington Spa, England in 1875, Crowley was raised by Christian fundamentalist parents. He attended Trinity College at Cambridge University, but left before graduating. After leaving the college, he devoted his time to studying the occult, and travelled extensively throughout the world in persuit of its secret knowledge. He went on to become a prolific writer, producing essays, prose and poetry on a wide range of subjects. To this day he remains a highly influential figure, both in occult circles and popular culture. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions.

The children stumbled upon this orchard, where they saw the statue of the double-faced Roman deity Janus, father of the Olympus.

Not many refuse heaven. Fewer reject paradise. Certainly rare are those who would find themselves before a being of unknown power and point out the demerits of nirvana.One man does.When the aloof fourth son of a business mogul makes the decision to save a life at the cost of his own, he discovers that what awaits him at the end of his mortality is not eternal oblivion.He cannot help but be disappointed.When he realizes the world he's been brought to works like the old fantasy games he used to love, he begins to see the merits.If only he did not start out as the weakest thing in existence, and if only the world he was in was not populated with madness-inducing creatures and fates worse than death. "Decide for yourself, your fantasies and your Nightmares, your companions and your adversaries, your angels and your demons, your gods and your monsters. Alamir stretches to you a hand of a thousand possibilities -You only need take it."

The most adventourous, polymathic - and readable - scientific populariser of the age offers in Janus a summing up of a quarter of a century's study and speculations on the life sciences and their philosophic implications. Koestler has an interesting theme to propose. It is this; the human brain has developed a terrible biological flaw, such that it is working now against the survival of the race. Something has "snapped" inside the brain. It is no longer necessarily a function which will lead us to a better world, but something demonic, possessed, perhaps even evil. The anguished humanity of Koestler's concepts and the lucid energy of his style comman respect. Here is one of the major political "experiencers" an dmost widely informed spirits of the age turning to the crux of human survival on a ravaged planet. The title of the book tells not only of a central allegory of division in the human species. It stands for the rare tension on Koestler's discourses: between desolation and zest, between darkness and noon.

A quirky and exotic story about Edwina Nearly. Edwina lives with her mother who is a belly dancer, and so plays some strange music from time to time and has a good friend, Fatima, who Edwina relates to well. Edwina writes to her diary about the travails of life, especially the ongoing arguments Ned(Edwina) and her mother have with their very religious neighbours. the neighbours are constantly holding evangelical song nights etc. then one day, standing in front of the painting, the Garden of Earthly Delights, she finds herself in that world, in the painting and walking around in it and begins to come and go at will. She meets Janus there and they become friends in the Garden. But one day Janus wants to enter Edwina's world and Edwina must find a way of luring him back into the Garden before he destroys her and those she loves....Ages 13+

November 1966, a dark winter's night in Glasgow, and someone is in trouble. Jamie Raeburn, hearing a call for help, goes to investigate and what follows changes Jamie's life forever. He discovers a man, an American Naval Officer, being viciously assaulted by four other men ... but Jamie is alone and the odds are stacked against him and the American. Jamie, never one to dwell on odds, intervenes and in the ensuing fight ends up being stabbed and left for dead. Rushed to hospital Jamie undergoes emergency surgery and spends three days in Intensive Care and it's there he meets Kate Maxwell, a beautiful English nurse, and falls in love. But Kate Maxwell is married and their affair ends some months later when Kate, threatened by loan sharks for money her husband has borrowed - and missing the baby daughter whose existence she has kept from Jamie - returns to England and her family in the village of Calverton, near Nottingham, in England's Midlands leaving both men in her life behind. This leads to a unexpected meeting between them Jamie visits Kate's home in an effort to find her. It also leads a violent confrontation with the loan sharks. Jamie finally accepts that he has lost Kate but realises his reluctance to walk away from trouble in what is a violent city played a part in her decision. Intent on changing for the better he leaves his native Glasgow and heads south to Nottingham and a new job and, he hopes, a better future. His new life in Nottingham starts well enough but trouble seems to follow him no matter where he goes. And then fate takes a hand. Returning early to his lodgings one night after a girl he has arranged to meet doesn't turn up he meets Lucie Kent and his life takes on meaning again. The couple fall in love and it isn't long before they are living together in Nottingham but Lucie, like Kate Maxwell before her, has dark secrets she finds it impossible to share with Jamie, afraid that if she does she will lose him. These secrets involve Max Kelman, gangster son of a notorious Derby gangster. Jamie, conscious that something is playing on Lucie's mind presses her to tell him and, reluctantly, she does. But Lucie's revelations are much worse than Jamie expected and he realises he can't escape his past. He and Lucie are living a nightmare and confrontation with Max Kelman is inevitable. But winning the battle against Kelman will be difficult, if not impossible, and dangerous. It isn't only Kelman Jamie will have to defeat but the members of the Kelman gang. His first attempt ends in failure and he is lucky to escape with his life back to Glasgow but he is determined to return, Lucie's safety now uppermost in his mind. And so, a few weeks after his failed first attempt, with the help of the American he saved months before (Conor Whelan) and spiritual guidance from an old Glasgow Priest, Jamie returns to free Lucie from Kelman's clutches. In a violent conclusion Jamie confronts Max Kelman in the dark Derbyshire countryside with devastating consequences ... for both men.

To understand human character, one must first explore the depraved reaches of human consciousness

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