Isherwood has reinvented the spirit of devotion for the modern reader. If I had to propose a candidate for canonization, Isherwood - wry, self-conscious, scrupulously honest - would get my vote

A masterpiece of spiritual memoir

What emerges is a record of a religious adventure that would have delighted Kierkegaard... Isherwood rejects conventional piety - all the humdrum apparatus of worship - in favor of a direct, even jaunty appreciation of how preposterous, certainly precarious, spirituality can be today.

The sacred and the profane collide like never before

[Thich Nhat Hanh] shows us the connection between personal, inner peace and peace on earth

The first book to awaken a mainstream readership to the subject of mindfulness – a testimony to the power of Thich Nhat Hanh’s elegant and profound teaching.

Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West, a rare combination of mystic, poet, scholar and activist.

Beautifully written and a must-read.'

A scholarly but compelling meditation on the nature of death and dying. Persuasive, humane and beautifully written, Watkins writes like a latter day Thomas Browne - this is Urn Burial for the 21st century. Watkins wears his learning lightly as he conducts us through the nether regions of the underworld. Highly recommended.

From lost medieval souls to the rattling tables of nineteenth-century spiritualism, The Undiscovered Country is an evocative journey through a landscape of superstition, belief and doubt. It is also a brilliantly perceptive exploration of how our desire to connect with the departed, and with the idea of death itself, shapes who we are. Carl Watkins is a gifted historian and a masterful storyteller - and this is a marvellous book.

Watkins does several things particularly well. He tells a good story, or a string of them spanning the centuries. He makes locations accessible with some very vivid writing about place. But above all, he is good at summoning the spirits of the long gone and mostly unillustrious

Abounds with details…conveyed by way of wonderful stories that, taken together, amount not just to a remarkable and engaging history of our beliefs about death, but to a deeply affecting chapter in the history of bereavement

Watkins draws on a wide range of books, monuments and anecdotes, some relatively well know – such as the Phantom Drummer of Tedworth and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – others far less familiar… Fascinating

An impressive tapestry of social history

A fine work of literature, dealing with a complexity of issues in an accessible and enjoyable form

A well-researched book on our unusual relationship with the idea of the dead and death