London, more than any other city, has a secret history concealed from view. Behind the official façade promoted by the heritage industry, lies a city of esoteric traditions and obscure institutions, of lost knowledge and hidden locations. Occult London rediscovers this hidden history, unearthing the secret city and its forgotten inhabitants. Encompassing a historical panorama from the Elizabethan age to the present day, we are introduced to the magic of Dr Dee and Simon Forman, the rise of the Kabbalah and the occult designs of Wren and Hawksmoor. Elsewhere we meet figures such as Spring-Heeled Jack and the Highgate Vampyre, and occult organizations from the Invisible College to the Golden Dawn. Coverley explores this revival of interest in the occult tradition, one that accords well with emerging New Age philosophies, the interest in London’s Ley Lines, in alternative histories and psychogeography.
978-1-904048-88-6 (print) £9.99
978-1-84243-949-4 (epub) £5.99
For more than 2,000 years utopian visionaries have sought to create a blueprint of the ideal society: from Plato to HG Wells, from Cloudcuckooland to Shangri-La, Utopia takes the reader on a journey through these imaginary worlds, charting the progress of utopian ideas from their origins within the classical world, to the rebirth of utopian ideals in the Middle Ages. Later we see the emergence of socialist and feminist ideas; while the twentieth century was to be dominated by expressions of totalitarian oppression.
Today, it is claimed that we are witnessing the death of utopia, as increasingly the ideals that give rise to them are undermined or dismissed. These arguments are explored and evaluated here, and contemporary examples of utopian thought used to demonstrate the enduring relevance of the utopian tradition.
978-1-84243-316-4 (print) £7.99
978-1-84243-873-2 (epub) £5.99
From the urban wanderer to the armchair traveller, from the dérive to détournement, psychogeography provides us with new ways of apprehending our surroundings, transforming the familiar streets of our everyday experience into something new and unexpected.
This original bestseller, now in its fifth printing conducts the reader through this process, offering both an explanation and definition of the terms involved, and an analysis of the key figures and their work. A very useful introduction.
‘A short, but valuable book’ – Daily Telegraph
‘A short guide to psychogeography for beginners’ – New Statesman
978-1-84243-347-8 (Print) £7.99
978-1-84243-870-1 (epub) £5.99
In this book, Merlin Coverley examines the major themes in the development of the London novel from its origins in the Victorian metropolis and onward to the present day and the revival of London writing. On the way he explores the Occult Tradition and London Noir, the Disaster Novel and the rise of Psychogeography, and alongside the recognised classics of the genre he recovers some of those lost London writers whose works have been unjustly neglected.
London has continued to generate a series of fantastic visions. The humorous and the tragic, the grotesque and the bizarre, everything is possible here as Merlin Coverley explains.
978-1-904048-48-0 (print) £4.99
978-1-84243-947-0 (epub) £5.99