The Silent Eye has a growing bookshelf of works that span many genres, from workbooks to humour, mythology to adventure, even one from a small dog.
All books available in paperback and for Kindle via Amazon.
You can find them by visiting our author pages Steve Tanham: UK. US. Stuart France: UK. US. France. Germany. Japan and India. Sue Vincent UK. US. France. Germany. Japan and India Or visit your local Amazon site.
You can download a free Kindle app for PC, Mac, android and other platforms that allows you to read the books available, even if you do not own a Kindle.. and there are thousands of books to choose from, including many classics, and hard-to-find volumes! With a huge catalogue of free, discounted and rare books to choose from it is a treasure trove for bookworms.
You can download the free Kindle reading app for your device here in the UK, or here in the US.
Touching the Sun
Mystical Poetry
By Steve Tanham
In this collection of mystical poems, Steve Tanham, founding director of the Silent Eye, explores his personal relationship between the soul and the sun. Plotting its course through the seasonal round, we can recognise the beauty of this natural cycle and catch fleeting glimpses of the greater beyond.
THE SONG OF THE TROUBADOUR:
A Silent Eye Workbook
by Steve Tanham
Foreword by Sue Vincent
With contributions from Stuart France and those who were there to share this very special journey.
“Being is without beginning and end. This flowing, loving, intelligence is the basis of everything we know. Whatever level of consciousness we attain, it will only reveal the greater and greater depth of Being that has always been there within us and before us.
Being also forms the objects that we believe are separated from us. But the Reality and the Truth are that we live and have our own being in a sea of endless loving energy that is our true home. There is no separation, there is in the end, no journey; there is only realisation, and seeing. What unveils itself before us, was always there.”
A group of pilgrims have been brought together in the ancient monastery of the Keepers of the First Flame. Unexpectedly, the door opens and into their midst stride the Troubadours, holding a Child by the hand…. a very special Child in whom the Light of Being shines clear… and who can see the world as it really is. The Troubadours are on an urgent mission to save the life of a King and they enlist the aid of the pilgrims to care for the Child as they fathom the meaning an ancient and prophetic riddle….
Thus began the inaugural weekend that saw the Birthing of the Silent Eye, a modern Mystery School. This workbook is both a practical transcript of the dramatic rituals of that weekend and the story of that Birth. The book opens a window onto the workings of a modern Mystery school, sharing the accounts of some of those who attended the weekend as well as the detailed script of the powerful ritual drama. If you have ever wondered what really goes on… this book is for you.
LAND OF THE EXILES
A Silent Eye Workbook with Practical Notes
Steve Tanham
With contributions from the Companions of the Hawk
The Hawk has crash-landed on the planet Idos, the crew awake from cryogenic sleep to find that their captain is missing and the ship has been taken over by a cyborg who bends them to his will, making them play out the stories of the ancient gods of Egypt as it seeks to understand what it is to be human. Their only hope of survival lies in the strange touch of the Mindstream, and their own inner hearts…
Land of the Exiles is a practical and teaching guide to a fully scripted ritual workshop from the Silent Eye, a modern Mystery School.
“This principle of theatre as initiatory space remains with us today in modern Mystery Schools, particularly in the West. There is something deeply ‘opening’ about being part of a staged production. It is very liberating when it goes well. There is also the risk of it being a poor experience if it goes badly.
Yet, few people think of the other, and much more common meaning of the word ‘Play’. Literally, to do as children do, and explore by Playing. Built into the development of our brains, this principle hides a deeply serious purpose – to come to terms with the world as it really is – Objective Reality, learned by fun, trial and error. We do not often think about the juxtaposition of the two meanings of Play. Yet they are deeply entwined in the human soul. To learn by doing, with fun and without fear, is a natural process within our minds.
A normal theatre production takes a well-rehearsed cast and an appropriate stage. Given the vast range of styles, there are few rules, but that appropriateness is everything. As in life, the overly ornate will lose out to the simple when it comes to that passage of meaning from object to viewer, given the right script . . .
What happens if you take away the time to rehearse? In a staged production, you would get a state of panic, with the more experienced actors being able to cope, and the less experienced being less able to manage the shift towards the edge of chaos. But what if you wanted that edge of chaos to prevail, to transform itself into something very different? What happens if you reduce the rehearsal time to zero?
In the Silent Eye School, we are pioneering a new type of Ritual Drama. In our major workshops, we work with a different type of Play – a single story which spans a whole weekend. The various Acts within that play will divide the action into its major stages, with the first Act being a relatively gentle introduction to the major theme of the weekend, but told, in role, by the whole cast. By the middle of the weekend the tension will be high, with elements of opposition at the peak of their power. By the final Act, on the Sunday morning, there comes a longing for all the stretched threads to be pulled together; for the Alchemy of Transformation to work its magic, bringing the improbable into the now in an act of super-physical, psychological healing whose function is to create a gateway through which all the participants pass – an initiation, in its truest sense. For the players, the performers (and we are all performers at these events), it can be a life-changing moment. As the production team, our job is to ensure it is – and many years of getting it right speak for our record in this.
And the audience? Well, there isn’t one, because we are all Players in this . . .”
PIECES OF NIETZSCHE: A Thinker’s Bias
Stuart France
The question of value goes to the heart of who we are, what we are and why we think we are here… A tendency to make certain assumptions about our environment appears to be intrinsic to our nature, yet the meaningful existence we crave can only ever be granted by a ‘higher power’ which we now seem loathe to recognise outside of ourselves… We have always looked to those best qualified to answer our most fervent questions but what if they too have fallen foul of the ‘Auction-House of Things’… And what of Beyond?
Friedrich Nietzsche, philosophical and psychological genius of the nineteenth century, in his book, ‘Beyond Good and Evil’, presaged the breakdown of the Western Aristocratic ruling elite and the irresistible forces that led to two catastrophic world wars. This new poetic interpretation of his master work teases out still relevant lines of thought for the reappraisal of our rapidly disintegrating current world order.
SLIVERS OF SØREN: Testaments to Truth
In his relatively short literary career, Danish philosopher, Sǿren Kierkegaard, challenged the religious orthodoxy of his age with a series of exquisitely penned philosophical works which he placed before the reading public under a welter of different aliases.
All these writings addressed the spiritual concerns of his age and, on a broader note, questioned just what it means to be human. Losing the ability to think for ourselves, and to question the decisions of a ruling elite, for Kierkegaard, was a prelude to surrendering our very freedom as a people.
Recognising alarming parallels with our own times, and taking Kierkegaard’s classic, Fear and Trembling as a start, author and essayist, Stuart France, heads straight to the heart of the Jewish and Christian spiritual traditions with this poetic foray into high ideas…
The quality of story is not strained.
The Western Mystery Tradition may never be the same again!
NUANCES OF NICOLL The Keys to Heaven
Stuart France
Psychologist, Maurice Nicoll studied under Fourth Way exponents G.I Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky, and presented his own philosophy in a series of works published during the Mid Twentieth Century.
In his seminal work, Living Time… he makes no bones about insisting that the psychological states and concepts that he is expounding, and their utilisation, are ancient and stretch back through Christianity, Judaism, the Greek Philosophers and on into the mysterious climes of Pre-Dynastic Egypt…
In re-presenting these ideas as a series of poetic explorations, author and essayist, Stuart France uncovers a series of links with the Mediaeval Traditions of the Northmen, and the Matter of Britain!
What is the original story of our week? How does the moon harrow hell? Prepare to be enthralled, entertained, educated, and enlightened, as new light is shed on the enigmatic figures of Wotan, Merlin, and King Arthur.
They do not write books like this any more, if indeed they ever did!
CRUCIBLE OF THE SUN:
The Mabinogion Retold
By Stuart France
“I will dazzle like fire, hard and high, will flame the breaths of my desire; chief revealer of that which is uttered and that which is asked, tonight I make naked the word.”
Once upon a time we gathered around the flames of the hearth and listened to tales of long ago and far away. The stories grew in the telling, weaving ancient lore whose origins lie somewhere in a misty past with tales of high adventure, battles, magic and love. In Crucible of the Sun this oral tradition is echoed in a unique and lyrical interpretation of tales from the Mabinogion, a collection of stories whose roots reach back into the depths of time, spanning the world and reflecting universal themes of myth and legend.
These tales capture a narrative deeply entwined through the history of the Celtic peoples of the British Isles, drawing on roots that are embedded in the heart of the land. In Crucible of the Sun the author retells these timeless stories in his own inimitable and eminently readable style. The author’s deep exploration of the human condition and the transitions between the inner worlds illuminate this retelling, casting a unique light on the symbolism hidden beyond the words, unravelling the complex skein of imagery and weaving a rich tapestry of magic.
‘The author’s creative and scholarly engagement with the material and enthusiasm for the original tales is evident throughout.’ The Welsh Books Council
‘I found it very inspiring!’ Philip Carr-Gomm, Chosen Chief, Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (O.B.O.D.)
THE LIVING ONE:
Caravan to Cairns
Stuart France
Two young men, a road trip across the Australian Outback, strange encounters in isolated settlements… and a book that will change one of them forever. From the harsh heat of the dusty road to the cool of the Temple, two stories… one immediate, one timeless… intertwine to illuminate each other.
Many scholars believe that the Gospel of Thomas preserves a glimpse into the oral tradition of the Essenes. The book is a collection of sayings, parables and dialogues attributed to Jesus. In this unique interpretation author and essayist, Stuart France, brings the oral tradition to life, retelling the Gospel in his own words, in the way it may have been told around the hearth-fires of our fore-fathers. Accompanied by in-depth comments which draw upon the Mystery School Tradition, The Living One provides a new window on an age-old story.
THE TRIAD OF ALBION
THE INITIATE
Sue Vincent & Stuart France
Don and Wen, two founding members of a new Esoteric School, meet to explore an ancient sacred site, as a prelude to the School’s opening event.
The new School is based upon a psychological, nine-fold, system and operates under the aegis of the Hawk of Horus.
The trip does not unfold as planned.
Instead, Don and Wen, apparently guided by a plethora of birds, embark upon a journey that will lead them through a maze of spiritual symbolism, to magical mysteries and the elusive figure of the ‘Ninth Knight’.
The Initiate is the story of a journey beyond the realms of our accustomed normality.
It is a true story told in a fictional manner.
In just such a way did the Bards of old hide in the legends and deeds of folk heroes, the deeper truths of existence for those ‘with eyes to see and ears to hear’.
As the veils thin and waver, time shifts and the present is peopled with shadowy figures of the past, weaving their tales through a quest for understanding and opening wide the doors of perception.
HEART OF ALBION
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
“If I am consciously following a woman who is about to engage a Llama in conversation, which I certainly appear to be, it does not impinge too negatively upon my thought processes.”
What does Jack and the Beanstalk have to do with a spiritual quest? What, for that matter, is the nature of the relationship between Salome and the Jester? Why is Wen conversing with a llama in the Yorkshire Dales? And what links the beautiful and sacred landscape that is the Heart of Albion with Breakfast in Slug Town? These, and many other questions, must be considered as Don and Wen continue the journey begun in The Initiate exploring the shadowy roots of the ancient myths and legends of these Blessed Isles, steering a perilous path through the murky waters of religious symbolism and iconography.
“Breakfast in Slug Town?”
Join them on their continuing quest for knowledge and understanding as they explore the landscape of England and people it with strange creatures and even stranger theories, using sacred intent and guided imagination to penetrate into the mysteries unfolding before them.
Illustrated in full colour throughout
GIANTS DANCE
Stuart France and Sue Vincent
It began with a walk over the bracken covered hillsides of Derbyshire to a lonely stone circle, almost forgotten. It was just a walk…until the hawk flew from the tree and once again the visions began.
Plunged into a realm beyond reality, further than history, deeper than time, Don and Wen begin to unravel the hidden messages hidden in plain sight, concealed by habit and acceptance, and extraordinary magic framed within the small things of ordinary life.
Follow a journey across the Heart of Albion and become an Initiate of the mysterious verity of verse…
“Interesting that they should seek to make the seven four like that.”
“Three harmonic pairs and a jubilant head?”
“It reminds me of something biblical.”
“It wouldn’t be Jubilees would it? The Hebrews, you know, took an awful lot with them when they fled from Egypt.”
“I know, but it’s not Jubilees, although that does bear some consideration. It’s the three-score years and ten! It’s precisely the same dynamic. In fact, we even raised the question of whether there was anything in the tradition appertaining to it.”
“And now we have our answer!”
“The Hebrew’s Divinely sanctioned earthly span of life is determined by the Seven Hathors.”
Illustrated in Full Colour throughout
THE DOOMSDAY SERIES
DOOMSDAY: The Ætheling Thing
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
“Who was this Arviragus bloke anyway?”
Don studies the light as it plays through his beer, casting prisms on the table. How is it possible to hide such a story… the hidden history of Christianity in Britain? Oh, there are legends of course… old tales… Yet what if there was truth in them? What was it that gave these blessed isles such a special place in the minds of our forefathers? There are some things you are not taught in Sunday School. From the stone circles of the north to the Isle of Avalon, Don and Wen follow the breadcrumbs of history and forgotten lore to uncover a secret veiled in plain sight.
Wen is checking something in the Dictionary, “Get this… ‘ætheling from O.E. .Æpling, ‘son of a king, man of royal blood, nobleman, chief, prince, king, Christ, God-Man, Hero, Saint…’
“Wait a minute… wait a minute… give me that last bit again.”
“…Christ, God-Man, Hero, Saint…”
“Didn’t we call our Arthur, Aeth in, ‘The Heart of Albion’?”
“We did.”
“And didn’t we set his story in Mercia?”
“We did.”
“And didn’t Mercia grow to become the largest and most powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Albion at one point in its history?”
“It did indeed.”
“Well that’s it then…The Anglo Saxon kings were claiming divine descent.”
“…Along with most other European kings at that time no doubt.”
“That’s true, but the Anglo-Saxon kings’ descent wasn’t from God it was from Christ.”
“And how did they get there?”
“They got there from their very own High One who also hung from a tree with a spear in his side… screaming.”
“Odin!”
“They evidently regarded Christ as an avatar of Odin.”
“Blimey, you’ll not read that in any history book!”
“Just as well we’re not writing a history then isn’t it?”
Full colour illustrated
DOOMSDAY: Dark Sage
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
Don and Wen continue their journey through the landscape of Albion, seeking answers to the hidden mysteries and strange pathways that run like the streams through the hills and dales…
“But go on… if you can…”
“Okay… I’ll try, ‘Then in the days of Good King Lucius came a revival, Llewrig Mawr, the Great Luminary… increased the Light that the first missionaries, the disciples of Christ, had brought…’”
“Ah, but Little Grub, correct me if I am wrong, but hasn’t this text just stated that the first missionaries were the Disciples of Christ?”
“No correction, O Something Feral, but the statement could be nothing more than a generalisation?”
“Generalisation or not the time frame is also interesting.”
“Pray tell how so, O Woolly One?”
“Why, two hundred years is about the time usually given for the period generally referred to in our, perhaps not quite as accurate as we would like to believe, historical records as… the Dark Ages!”
“Llewrig Mawr actually means The Great King of Light,” says Wen quietly.
“Which sounds pretty much like the Christ himself to me,” say I cheerfully…
DOOMSDAY: Scions of Albion
Stuart France and Sue Vincent
The final book in the Doomsday Triad
…“Just make sure there’s enough room in the boot of the car,” says Wen and throws me the keys to the Silver Bullet before disappearing back into the flat to retrieve something.
I peruse with some consternation those contents: a wheel-barrow, a spade, a crow bar and a length of rope and when I look up to remonstrate with Wen she appears to be clad head to foot in black, wearing a black balaclava on her head, and holding an air rifle.
“What the…”
“Just put that in the boot and get in the car,” she says, handing me what can only be my own black balaclava and cladding.
“There had better be a damn good reason for all this,” say I clambering into the front seat.
“Too right there should,” intones Ben’s familiar drawl as he emerges upright from his prostrate position along the back seat of the Silver Bullet.
Somewhat un-reassuringly he also appears to be wearing a black balaclava…
Lands of Exile: But ‘n’ Ben
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
For once, Don was right… it was all Wen’s fault.
If only Ben had not insisted in going back for the gun…
Don and Wen should hand themselves in and share the fate of their co-conspirator. It would be the noble thing to do.
Does this course of action appeal to our errant duo?
Not on your Nelly!
As Ben languishes in the dank cells of Bakewell Gaol, Don and Wen hit the road. Their headlong dash for freedom takes them north, where they are beset by a host of ‘Orphan Stones’ clamouring to be led back home.
But they are not alone… and the sinister Black Shade is not the only thing dogging their heels as they blaze their unorthodox trail through the signs, seals and sacred sites of old Albion…
Lands of Exile Book Two
Beck ‘n’ Call
Ben, fast becoming a folk hero after the apparent theft of a standing stone, now languishes in Bakewell Gaol. Don and Wen, suspected of being his accomplices, are on holiday… or ‘on the run’ if Bark Jaw Dark and PC 963 Kraas, hot in pursuit, are to be believed.
From England to Scotland, the officers of the Law have followed the trail of the erratic couple as they visited the ancient sites of Albion. This time, though, as Don and Wen take the slow boat to Ireland, Kraas and Jaw Dark are one step ahead.
But Ireland is a land of mystery and magic where reality is intertwined with vision and standing stones are still open doors…
How long can Don and Wen continue to evade the long arm of the Law?
In the shadows, a labyrinth of secrecy shrouds a mysterious figure. What is Montgomery’s interest in a small standing stone? Just how many high-level strings can he pull… and why? And what is the dark, winged creature that is now on the loose?
Join Don and Wen as they continue their adventures in the sacred and magical landscape of Albion.
Lands of Exile:
KITH ‘N’ KIN
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
The Beeley Stone, ‘liberated’ from the churchyard at Bakewell, stands proudly in the centre of its village green once more. While the locals enjoy the fruits of its restoration, Ben, who had led the daring raid against authority, still languishes in jail.
Don and Wen, arrested and released without explanation in Ireland, now plot an erratic course through the wild places of Wales, while Jaw-Dark and Kraas, seeking the legendary stone of Fergus Mac Roy, have been separated in the most uncanny of circumstances…
As the darkness closes around them, the Black Shade haunts the moors above Beeley and, in the shadowy rooms of the old tower, an ancient and even stranger story begins to unfold…
Finding Don & Wen
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
Two friends living hundreds of miles apart inadvertently begin to explore the magical and ancient landscape of Albion, delving into the symbolism hidden within mediaeval churches and piecing together the clues that appear to be left before them like a breadcrumb trail.
The correspondence within this book was written as their adventures began to unfold, recording and highlighting strange concepts and exploring magical ideas, from across the pages of human history and spiritual thought.
Don and Wen are characters in The Initiate, the first of nine books that tell the full story of what became a true quest. While this book stands alone as a practical guide to how to listen for and interpret the voice of the living land and its history from a unique perspective, it also adds yet another dimension to the original story, painting the backdrop to Don and Wen’s journey through time, space and high weirdness.
Joining Don & Wen
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
Don and Wen, two friends living hundreds of miles apart embark, all unwittingly, upon a quest through the ancient and sacred landscape of Albion…
The two share a passion for these prehistoric sites, seeing that their potential has not been erased by time, making them as vital and relevant in today’s society as they always were.
Through Don and Wen’s correspondence, learn how to read the clues hiding within the landscape and in the symbols of faith left by our forefathers in the mediaeval churches, stone circles and ancient monuments.
This is the second book in the series, ‘Finding Don and Wen, but can stand alone. The book may act as a guide to show the reader how to engage with the landing a meaningful way… and how that engagement opens you wide to life in all its glory.
SWORDS OF DESTINY
A magical novel of Merlin
Sue Vincent
“…and the swords must be found and held by their bearers lest the darkness find a way into the heart of man. Ask the waters to grant guidance and tell the ancient Keeper of Light that it is time to join battle for the next age.”
Rhea Marchant heads north to the wild and beautiful landscapes of the Yorkshire Dales where she is plunged into an adventure that will span the worlds. The earth beneath her feet reveals its hidden life as she and her companions are guided by the ancient Keeper of Light in search of artefacts of arcane power. With the aid of the Old Ones and the merry immortal Heilyn, the company seek the elemental weapons that will help restore hope to an unbalanced world at the dawn of a new era.
THE MYSTICAL HEXAGRAM:
The Seven Inner Stars of Power
Dr G. Michael Vasey & S.C.Vincent
Foreword by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki
The Mystical Hexagram is a new book by Dr G. Michael Vasey and S.C.Vincent. The book explores a symbol. Not from some scholarly or deeply complex perspective, but seeing it as a representation relating to life and living. The forces and pressures that are associated with the hexagram are, after all the forces of life at both practical and Universal levels. By exploring and beginning to understand the symbol, we are able to learn and discover more about ourselves.
The meditations throughout the book take you on an inner journey of exploration, discovering the parallels between the self and the greater reality within which we live our lives. They illustrate the connection between the inner and outer world of the self and the cosmic forces of Creation. Having traced that connecting path, the meditations offer a practical way of applying that understanding.
In addition to the exercises the book includes two very special meditations, The Garden of Remembrance and the Circle of Healing. These two you will want to revisit many times, taking away from the experience a sense of peace and beauty.
THE OSIRIAD
Isis & Osiris, the Divine Lovers
Sue Vincent
“There was a time we did not walk the earth. A time when our nascent essence flowed, undifferentiated, in the Source of Being.”
In forgotten ages, the stories tell, the gods lived and ruled amongst men. Many tales were told, across many times and cultures, following the themes common to all mankind. Stories were woven of love and loss, magic and mystery, life and death. One such story has survived from the most distant times. In the Two Lands of Ancient Egypt a mythical history has been preserved across millennia. It begins with the dawn of Creation itself and spans one of the greatest stories ever to capture the heart and imagination.Myths are, by their very nature, organic. They grow from a seed sown around a hearthfire, perhaps, and the stories travelled the ancient highways, embellished and adapted with each retelling. Who knows what the first story told?
In this retelling of the ancient story it is the Mistress of all Magic herself who tells the tale of the sacred family of Egypt.
“We have borne many names and many faces, my family and I. All races have called us after their own fashion and we live their stories for them, bringing to life the Universal Laws and Man’s own innermost heart. We have laughed and loved, taught and suffered, sharing the emotions that give richness to life. But for now, I will share a chapter of my family’s story. One that has survived intact through the millennia, known and remembered still, across your world. Carved in stone, written on papyrus, I will tell you of a time when my name was Isis.”
Petals of the Rose
Guided Journeys
Sue Vincent
A collection of guided meditations, designed to open aspects of the personality in as gentle and natural way as the petals of the rose open at the touch of the sun. Each inner journey will carry you to a haven within your own psyche from which to explore layers of your own being, learning their meaning and purpose.
From mystical and silent castles, to the song of the unicorn… each journey takes you deeper into your inner being and carries you out beyond the stars.
Stories stir the imagination, casting images upon the screen of mind that allow us to explore, in safety, aspects of our lives and being that we might otherwise avoid or overlook. There is a rich vein of experience in memory that can be mined for its treasures. One of the simplest and best ways of exploring the labyrinths of the mind is to do so through a guided journey.
Meditation and visualisation are not arcane practices in which a few indulge… we all use these tools every day, to navigate our way around the world and our lives. We ask ourselves ‘what if?’, creating imaginary scenarios before we act. We visualise the route we walk to work, or what the basket full of ingredients will look like, once assembled and cooked, on a dinner plate.
There is no mystery in meditation… but when you give time and attention to the practice, it can open the door to many mysteries… including those of our own being…
Available via Amazon.com, Amazon UK and worldwide in Paperback and for Kindle
Midnight Haiku
The poems within this book collate a year’s journey in poetry through the seasons and the intermingled landscape of mind, body and spirit.
The poems were originally published as “midnighthaiku” every night at the appropriate time, leaving, like Cinderella, a trace of a day’s passing and a glimmer of the day yet to come.
Each poem can be read alone and simply ‘on the surface’. Many can be read in sequences that add an extra dimension to the wider human tale contained within these pages.
But each poem has its own layers of meaning too, waiting to be discovered by those who turn their attention to the heart.
NOTES FROM A SMALL DOG
Four Legs on Two
Sue Vincent
“He asked me what it is with balls…why I love them so much. I had a think about that. It is ‘cause they fly. Like birds. I’m supposed to chase birds. I’m a bird-dog. ‘Course, she won’t really let me. It doesn’t stop me barking at ‘em and seeing ‘em off from my garden. But it isn’t the same. Somewhere, deep inside, I know what I am supposed to do, what I am supposed to be. But I can’t be that for some reason… things aren’t quite set up right for me to chase birds all day and bring them back to her. On the other hand, that’s who I am…and you can’t be anything else than that… so the balls let me be myself in a world where I can’t catch birds all day.
She says that’s not unusual… She seems to think that we all know who we really are, deep down, and that we spend all our time trying to find a way to be that in a world that doesn’t quite seem to fit. We either find other stuff to express it…like balls…. Or we try and be what others think we should be… But you can’t be a terrier if you are a retriever, can you? A bit like asking a fish to climb trees. It can be done, but it isn’t easy!”
Ani, a very familiar spirit, was named for one of the ancient gods. It should, I suppose, have been no surprise when she took over the keyboard and began to write. A year later she had me collect her writings into a single volume at the insistence of her fans… who have been taken by her playful love of life and her odd wisdom…largely because she is saving for an automatic tennis ball launcher. The book is a collection of Ani’s periodic posts, Notes from a Small Dog, on scvincent.com, with some other pieces she has asked me to include. She even lets me write occasionally… By this time you may, of course, think I am barking mad myself… you may have a point… but I stand with Orhan Pamuk, “Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.”
Laughter Lines:
Life from the Tail End
Sue Vincent
Take a life with a small dog in tow, add a dash of red hair dye, a selection of crumbling biscuits and a passion for recitable verse… The result is a recipe for laughter. Sue Vincent and the small dog share a world in verse.
Doggerel: Life with the Small Dog
Sue Vincent
The relationship between Ani, the inimitable Small Dog and her two-legs, first came to light in ‘Notes from a Small Dog: Four Legs on Two’. Their poetic adventures continued in ‘Laughter Lines: Life from the Tail End’.
In this new collection of poems, their daily life together takes centre stage. From the perfidy of humans who insist on bathing dogs, to the unpunctuality of writers at mealtimes, the relationship between two legs and four is explored in verse.
The Small Dog reveals her continuing fascination with chicken, tennis balls and the compulsion to re-write Shakespeare, while exposing her two legs’ misdemeanours to the world.
Pass the Turkey!
The Small Dog’s Christmas
It is almost Christmas and things are not looking good for the Small Dog. There are too many Santas, too few tennis balls and not enough snow. To make matters worse, her two-legs says there is no room for a Christmas Tree in their new home and there isn’t even a chimney!In a bid to save Christmas, the Small Dog decides to write to Santa. Every day.
Join Ani as she tells Santa about her days, explores what Christmas means to her and asks him some very awkward questions…A seasonal collection of verse, humour and anecdotes from the inimitable Small Dog.
Life Lines: Poems from a Reflection
A collection of fifty-two poems of life, love and inspiration.
There are joys for which we cannot find expression, moments that have a depth of emotion that can only be shared in images. It is here that poetry comes into its own, for the pictures we paint with words can conjure all the emotions of the human heart. From solitude to passion, from aspiration to the quest for the soul’s inner light, we seek to find ways to share our journey through life, to witness our footsteps as we pass through its shifting sands and cast a reflection on time itself. The poet is both mirror and reflection, framing the images of a human life and giving them a beating heart.
Mister Fox: The Legend
Sue Vincent & Stuart France
A Graphic Novel
Where do they come from?
They come out of the night…
Where do they go to?
Back to the night they return…
They dance in the dark to pipe and drum and fiddle
They dance in the dark with fire and brandished flame…
No-one knows who they are…
But why do they dance?
What is the story behind this magical spectacle?
There are rumours, legends…
Don and Wen set out to investigate.
In a darkened corner of the Waggon and Horses, Langsett, a hooded and enigmatic figure whispers secrets…
Mister Fox & The Demon Dogs
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
Bone-white winter gleams in the moonlight. Silent shadows hunt in the night…. The Hunter’s Moon sails above dark hills, caught in the empty fingers of the treetops. A mysterious company gathers to kindle the flames of the dance; arcane patterns of fire woven in the blackness to the beat of the drums. Silent as ghosts in the darkness, others follow their trail, lurking in the night to watch… and wait… seeking their chance to usurp the forest throne… Old Fox wanes with the fading year, his fur touched by the silver of frost. Can he hold his realm against the ghostly challenge of the Demon Dogs? Yet all is not lost. They have seen it in the smoke… three magicians use their arts to breathe life into the spirit of Fox…
Mister Fox and the Green Man
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
“Foxes, Welch!” When Special Agent Tommy Welch is called into Tee’s office, he has little idea of the perils of his latest assignment. Accompanied by the sensuous Miss Hunnyfludd, Welch believes he is to investigate an outbreak of mysterious Foxes. Instead Tommy finds himself flung far back in time, to the court of King Arthur, where a Green Knight is about to extend a deadly challenge… Within the humorous spoof that frames the story, the reader is transported to Camelot to witness the confrontation of Gawain and the Green Knight. Based upon the story that lies deep at the heart of Arthurian lore, the threefold nature of the ancient myth unfolds…
Mister Fox: Winter’s Tail
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
Where is Mister Fox? The night howls in triumph… pale eyes watch from the shadows… It is the night of the Hunter’s Moon and the dancing ground should be alive with flame as the Foxes dance in the dark. But the dancing ground is deserted. They are gone. No earthly light pierces the gloom, only the sickly glow of a veiled moon.
Don and Wen stare in disbelief. Whispers in the shadows, a faceless voice, a tale of ambush and betrayal… of Foxes driven from their home and scattered, condemned to wander far from their ancestral lands. Charles James Fox wounded… none has seen him since that fateful night. Will the Hunter’s Moon pass in darkness? Have the Demon Dogs succeeded in their mission to bring eternal winter to the land? Or will their celebrations be short-lived?
For none may mar the Dancing Ground
Nor add their darkness to the night,
Nor stand against the Silver Fox,
The wielder of the Staff of Light…
Ben’s Bits: The Ballad of Bakewell Gaol
Steve Tanham
“How long, now? How long have I been locked in here? One hour, maybe two? One pace, two paces, three . . . I stop at
three, drowning in the exact middle of the dark space of the cell in Bakewell Gaol. They can’t leave me here! Look, this is just a mistake, you don’t understand, we were only . . . “ Ben has been arrested for his part in a scheme hatched by Wen to re-site an ancient stone in its original position. If only he had not gone back for the gun… Don and Wen are nowhere to be found and the judge seems to want an example to be made… and Ben is all he has….
The Beast in the Café
Steve Tanham
The Beast in the Café tells the journey of an ordinary man… a writer. A quiet coffee on a sunny afternoon, watching the world go by… that was the plan. But suddenly his world is turned upside down by an insistent Pomeranian and his mysterious owner. Everyday objects become the tools that lead first to knowledge, then to the glimmering of understanding…
Read a sample of this book here.
Nine Deadly Sins: The Eye for an ‘I’
Steve Tanham
Their meetings are necessarily brief… seldom more than a coffee, a momentary pause between the demands of life and work… but for John and Alexandra time matters less than the connection they share…“It’s about where you put the “I”, isn’t it?” I asked John, as he sat down, late with latté, and smiled, apologetically, at me.“Where is the “I’ now?” he asked, smiling over the hot coffee he was trying to sip, to catch up with mine.“That’s what I’m wrestling with,” I responded, trying not to lose the thread that I had carefully assembled in the past week, parts of which were trying to sneak away in the face of the lovable but infuriating man who might just help me unravel it…
Why Nine Deadly Sins, when the world speaks of only seven? When John and Alexandra meet for coffee, a challenge is issued that will take Alexandra on a strange journey into the depths of the human psyche.
These coffee-break encounters bring to life the mysteries of the spiritual enneagram as explored by the Silent Eye, a modern Mystery school.
fascinating site…right up my alley so to speak…I’ll be back 🙂
Well, that’s good to hear 🙂
indeed 🙂
I am very much enjoying reading all about how The Silent Eye got started and about the three people who started it. I just found these parts (there is so much to read) so I have been treating myself to reading these things. Wow, exciting. I had to look up the (oh, I can’t remember what the word for them is right now) initials for organizations, and that was very educational too. It feels wonderful to be learning so many new things and I look forward to the next adventure.
I’m so glad you are finding it all interesting, Anne 🙂