This delightful book is written by the Englishman, married to a Jamaican woman who exposed him to the stories of duppies and supernatural happenings in her hometown, Porus, Manchester and different parts of Jamaica. The range of stories encompasses tales from Porus and Redberry, and Old Harbour in St. Catherine, and recalls the aftermath of the Kendall Train crash ( Jamaica's worst rail diaster). The book is a potpourri of authentic stories, some true, some ugly and sinister, some amusing. The book brings back all the childhood years of ghosts, gremlins and rolling calves, and brings to life...

Henry David Thoreau's Journal was his life's work: the daily practice of writing that accompanied his daily walks, the workshop where he developed his books and essays, and a project in its own right--one of the most intensive explorations ever made of the everyday environment, the revolving seasons, and the changing self. It is a treasure trove of some of the finest prose in English and, for those acquainted with it, its prismatic pages exercise a hypnotic fascination. Yet at roughly seven thousand pages, or two million words, it remains Thoreau's least-known work.

This reader's...