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Sunday Stories: New Substack Audio

A brand new fortnightly audio entitled 'Sunday Stories' is to start this week at The House of Beasts & Vines, Martin Shaw's subscription newsletter. On February 6, the series will kick off with an old, Irish story. Says Martin: "It's a story with a lot of spook and gnostic information." Over the coming months, these audio recordings, which will be available only to paid subscribers, will come direct from Martin's desk, down by the river, or out on the moor. Also available now are the first two sections

Sunday Stories: New Substack Audiolucy2022-02-12T19:27:43+00:00

The Voyage of Brendan: Substack sets sail

The first section of The Voyage of Brendan is now published on Dr Martin Shaw's subscription newsletter - The House of Beasts & Vines. A free taster is available, but for the cost of a London pint (around £5), subscribers will get exclusive access to this first essay, along with everything in the vault as it builds up. Says Martin: "I’m delighted to start The House of Beasts & Vines with a story that is causing a stir in my dreaming. Bats are bopping in the belfry,

The Voyage of Brendan: Substack sets saillucy2022-01-24T16:46:17+00:00

The House of Beasts & Vines – Substack launch

A brand new subscription newsletter has just been launched by Dr Martin Shaw - The House of Beasts & Vines. There will be regular free tasters, but for just $7 per month (around £5), subscribers will get exclusive access to new material and everything in the vault as it builds up. The newsletter will be published on the platform Substack, with fortnightly offerings from Martin, including fresh essays and audio recordings. It promises to be part care package, part spiritual provocation. Says Martin: "Imagine we’re sitting in my

The House of Beasts & Vines – Substack launchlucy2022-01-14T19:50:40+00:00

A Glimpse of the Library: Martin Shaw’s 2021 Reads

Martin was recently asked to share a handful of the books he was reading in 2021. For any of us book lovers contemplating what to delve in to for the coming year, here's a glimpse of the reading pile... "The Norton Anthology crackles and bangs with word-magic, devastating on occasion. Submission by Houllebecq is a prophetic tale for middle-aged professorial types getting lost in the passions of the world. She Who Is lovingly and dynamically places Sophia back in her rightful place within Christianity. The Interior Castle is

A Glimpse of the Library: Martin Shaw’s 2021 Readslucy2022-01-13T19:46:07+00:00

Tristan & Isolde, launching February 2022

Cista Mystica is delighted to announce the release of a new series of books, starting February 2022 with Martin Shaw’s version of Tristan and Isolde. This is the first volume from a major body of work Shaw has been working on over the past few years. From the primordial caves of antiquity and up through the pagan imagination and Christian mysticism, Shaw wanders centuries, stories and ideas that reconsecrate our relationship to a living earth. Based within the Celtic fringe of Britain, Tristan and Isolde is a standalone

Tristan & Isolde, launching February 2022lucy2022-01-08T09:32:12+00:00

The Hidden Country

New Year message from Dr Martin Shaw: Joe Strummer once told me not to lose a sense of the heroic. Not in some overbearing, strutting, macho manner, but in a quieter, more vocational register. That certain beautiful things needed defending, and that itself was an organising principle in the scattergun chaos of these times. That you figured out what you stood for. You set free a little morality but held back on the judgement. I’m not someone that peddles in despair or stirs up disorder and claims it

The Hidden Countrytina2022-01-03T18:46:30+00:00

Smoke Hole Sessions – Martin Shaw podcasts

Author and master storyteller Martin Shaw brings us the Smoke Hole Sessions – a series of vital conversations with inspirational people, in the hope that in the crackle of the thinking, the fire of the language, the visioning and the wildness of the exchanges, we may find breadcrumbs that lead us out of the forest again, and into a deeper life. Inspired by his new book Smoke Hole, Martin speaks to some of today’s most admired writers, musicians, comedians, activists and more about their own work and

Smoke Hole Sessions – Martin Shaw podcastslucy2021-12-08T10:39:14+00:00

BARDSKULL: A second glimpse, plus new Wolf Milk merchandise just in

Bardskull: a second glimpse Dr Martin Shaw has released a tantalising second glimpse of his latest book Bardskull, sharing a reading of an 11-minute section of the book as it unfolds. The wild words just recorded are a taster of this powerful fusion of memoir and myth, scheduled for publication in 2022 by Unbound Books, which has launched a funding project to get it completed and to press. Bardskull is the record of three journeys made in the year before Martin turned fifty - for each, he walks

BARDSKULL: A second glimpse, plus new Wolf Milk merchandise just inlucy2021-11-20T08:43:50+00:00

BARDSKULL: Audio sneak preview

Bardskull: a sneak preview As the funding of Dr Martin Shaw's brand new book Bardskull hits 61 per cent from 181 supporters, he has released a recording to give a little glimpse of what awaits. The recording is the story of Gawain and the Green Knight, told by a Hare hidden in Gawain's saddlebag. Bardskull, a powerful fusion of memoir and myth, is the record of three journeys made in the year before Martin turned fifty. For each, he walks alone into a forest in the heart of

BARDSKULL: Audio sneak previewlucy2021-11-03T11:58:02+00:00

Beautiful Learning: New Martin Shaw live audio

Beautiful Learning: New Martin Shaw live audio Recorded live over two days this summer, Beautiful Learning: Oral Thought & Culture-Making is a deep dive into Celtic stories and philosophy. The event, which took place on Dartmoor in Devon (UK) in July, included tellings of Cinderbiter (from the Hebrides) and Irish story The Birth of Ossian, along with a very rare rendition of the Invasion Tales of Erin and the Arrival of the Tuatha De Danann (Irish). The live recording (available as MP3 downloadable files) covers the gathering as

Beautiful Learning: New Martin Shaw live audiolucy2021-09-30T10:08:55+00:00