The healing power of horses.

Amazon is offering Pam Billinge's popular paperback at half price, just £4.99!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spell-Horse-Personal-Transformation-Teachers-ebook/dp/B073JPMHB5

Offer available on 6th August 2024... We've no idea how long this discount will continue.

Discover the true nature of the horse and the spiritual connections between horse and human

A collection of inspiring true stories depicting some of the transformational interactions between horse and human facilitated by Pam Billinge, a pioneering equine-assisted coach and therapist since 2008.

Pam also shares her own courageous path to redemption - from hitting an emotional rock bottom to finding the strength to follow her dream. Pam's insight into the true nature of the horse was awakened in the face of personal tragedy when her horse mirrored the emotional turmoil surrounding her mother's terminal cancer diagnosis.

What unfolds in this book is a powerful exploration of the deep, spiritual bond between horses and humans, revealing the horse's boundless capacity to facilitate healing.

The Spell of the Horse and its sequel The Spirit of the Horse are far more than memoirs. They are pragmatic, mindful, self-help guides that beckons those seeking to enrich their connection with horses, themselves, and the natural world. Discover simple principles within these pages that guide you through life's challenges, leading you to a path of happiness and fulfillment.

The people of Hydra and friends and relatives from all over the world gathered earlier this month to pay tribute to artist and writer Michael Lawrence. Michael, a long-term island resident, died in November 2021. It was a joy tinged with sadness to be able to attend this wonderful tribute, beautifully presented by the Historical Archives Museum, Hydra, supported by Michael's sister Toni Lawrence. He would have have loved it so much. The exhibition is on until 31 July 2024. 

Michael's memoir Tripping with Jim Morrison & Other Friends, with an introduction by Timothy Leary, is available to order from all good bookstores worldwide and online. 

[Photo, group with Michael portrait: Susanna Evelyn]

Welcome to the Tower of Secrets...

A TV studio full of secrets where everyone has something to hide:

The boys

Sean: Lovable Sean wears his heart on his sleeve. He can't hide his passion for Alice, but he's sleeping with Decima. Does a secret tattoo in a very private place mark the beginning of the end for Sean?

Cory: Much to his dismay, fiercely independent cool Zen Cory feels Cupid's tap on his heart. Is it for the wrong girl?

Josh: Studio director Josh is boss Cliff Gauld's right-hand-man and Decima's confidante. But is her trust in him misplaced?

Ramon: Beautiful Ramon is a back-room team-player, but nothing will get in the way of his secret ambition to get in front of the cameras one day.

The girls

Decima:  Decima Gauld is called in as a replacement presenter at her father's TV station. As the boss's daughter, she rules the Tower's 18th floor studio with a fist of iron. But Decima's show is called The Witch's Hour. And Decima is not a witch. If her secret gets out, she is ruined.  

Alice:  Unprepared for the lengths to which her jealous boss will go to drive her out of her job, Decima’s timid PA Alice finds herself humiliated and terrified. But Alice is secretly a real witch, daughter of the formidable Astrid, breeder of Screechers, terrifying fighting demons kept locked away in their fortified basement dungeon. In the high-stakes world of daily TV chat shows, Decima’s fierce battle with Alice takes a supernatural turn when Alice’s unleashes her powers.

But when outside danger threatens them both, they must find a way to unite if they are to survive.

Welcome to The Tower of Secrets. Hold tight for a heart-stopping ride...

The BEWITCHED trilogy by Kelly Alleyn

The Tower of Secrets

The Witch's Tale

Twists of Fate

Series produced in paperback and ebook. Available online and to order from all good bookstores (Book 1 ISBN 9781068650505; Book 2 ISBN 9781068650512; Book 3 ISBN 9781068650529) 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CB181FL9

'A remarkable book' Patrick Leigh Fermor

A new endorsement for Tim Salmon's The Unwritten Places - Wanderings in the Mountains of Northern Greece from Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, widely seen as the greatest travel writer of all time, has just come to light. Once described as a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene, 'Paddy' died in 2011. So, how come?

In Tim's words:

A friend, once UK ambassador in Athens and himself author of several scholarly books about Greece, was recently involved in curating an exhibition celebrating the painter John Craxton (my neighbour in Crete and in London and a long-time friend), Paddy Leigh Fermor and the Greek artist Ghika.

Michael, the friend, organised the Paddy Leigh Fermor side of the show. A couple of summers ago he was staying in Paddy's old house and found his copy of The Unwritten Places, which John Craxton had given him.  Michael took the photo and sent it.

Quotes by established authors are manna to publishers and authors alike and we are delighted to add the quote to Tim's cover and blurb. Books, good books, never go out of date of course. Especially this one. Tim's route through Northern Greece THE PINDOS WAY is gradually becoming an established adventure tourist trail. Check it out here:

The Pindos Way website

The Unwritten Places - Wanderings in the Mountains of Northern Greece by Tim Salmon

Paperback and ebook, available online and to order from all good bookshops.

When Tim Salmon first set out to explore the remote mountain regions of Northern Greece, he couldn't find anybody, either Greek or foreign, who knew anything about them or had ever been there. This, along with the absence of any books or detailed maps, proved irresistible to the Rough Guide author, travel journalist, mountaineer and linguist.

"Those hazy bulwarks seen against a summer sky from lowland roads and tourist routes where the black-caped winter shepherds repaired in spring. Where did they go?"

For the next 40 years Tim made it his business to find out.

A close friendship, ongoing to this day, with a family of Vlach mountain shepherds lies at the heart of The Unwritten Places. The Vlachs are called Arumani in their own language, which today is their principal distinguishing feature. It is a language derived from Latin and is considered to be a dialect of Romanian. Tim has watched his friends' flocks grow in size and seen the road arrive as their children grew into their sophisticated twenties.

Tim's final acceptance by these proud and secretive peoples (but never quite their dogs!) is marked by his participation in the annual transhumance of the shepherds and their flocks between winter and summer pastures at a time just before the roads and the lorries took over.

A beautifully-written, intimate portrait of an all but vanished way of Greek mountain life, uninterrupted for thousands of years.

A few quotes from PLF's Wikipedia page:

As a child Leigh Fermor had problems with academic structure and limitations, and was sent to a school for "difficult" children. He was later expelled from The King's School, Canterbury after he was caught holding hands with a greengrocer's daughter. At school he also became friendly with another contemporary Alan Watts.^[

^6]

^{At the age of 18 Leigh Fermor decided to walk the length of Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople (Istanbul).[9] He set off on 8 December 1933 with a few clothes, several letters of introduction, the Oxford Book of English Verse and a Loeb volume of Horace's Odes. He slept in barns and shepherds' huts, but was also invited by gentry and aristocracy into the country houses of Central Europe. He experienced hospitality in many monasteries along the way.}

Leigh Fermor influenced a generation of British travel writers, including Bruce Chatwin, Colin Thubron, Philip Marsden, Nicholas Crane and Rory Stewart.^[29]

^{Leigh Fermor was noted for his strong physical constitution, even though he smoked 80 to 100 cigarettes a day.[30] Although in his last years he suffered from tunnel vision and wore hearing aids and an eyepatch, he remained physically fit up to his death and dined at table on the last evening of his life.}

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Pam Billinge's The Spell of the Horse, about the healing power of horses, has been rising in the Amazon US charts since Christmas. It has now reached #6 in the Horse Books chart and #59 in Healing. The sequel, The Spirit of the Horse, is not far behind. 

The healing power of horses

The ability of the horse to sense emotion, energy & spirit goes way beyond what most of us realise

Discover the true nature of the horse and the spiritual connections between us

A book of inspiring true stories depicting some of the transformational interactions between horse and human facilitated by Pam Billinge, a pioneering equine-assisted coach and therapist since 2008.

Pam also shares her own courageous path to redemption - from hitting an emotional rock bottom to finding the strength to follow her dream. Pam's insight into the true nature of the horse was awakened in the face of personal tragedy when her horse mirrored the emotional turmoil surrounding her mother's terminal cancer diagnosis.

What unfolds in this book is a powerful exploration of the deep, spiritual bond between horses and humans, revealing the horse's boundless capacity to facilitate healing.