India is a land of miracles, where godmen and mystics mesmerise audiences with wondrous feats of magic. In great cities and remote villages alike, these mortal incarnations of the divine turn rods into snakes, drink acid, eat glass, hibernate and even levitate. Some live as kings, their devotees numbering hundreds of thousands; while others - virtually destitute - wander from village to village pledging to cure the sick, or bring rain in times of drought. As a child in rural England, Tahir Shah first learned the secrets of illusion from an Indian magician. Two decades later, he set out in search of this conjurer. Sorcerer's Apprentice is the story of his quest for, and initiation into, the brotherhood of Indian godmen. Learning along the way from sadhus, sages, avatars and sorcerers - it's a journey which took him from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay, in search of the miraculous.

When the Spanish Conquistadors swept through Peru in the sixteenth century, they were searching for great golden treasure. In 1572 they stormed the Inca stronghold of Vilcabamba, only to find the city deserted, burned, a nd already stripped of its wealth. According to legend the Incas had retreated deep into the jungle where they built another magnificent city in an inaccessible quarter of the cloud forest. For more than four centuries explorers and adventurers, archaeologists and warrior-priests have searched for the gold and riches of the Incas, and this lost city of Paititi, known by the local Machiguenga tribe as 'The House of the Tiger King'. House of the Tiger King is the tale of Shah's remarkable adventure to find the greatest lost city of the Americas, and the treasure of the Incas. Along the way he found himself considering others who have spent decades in pursuit of lost cities, and asks why anyone would find it necessary to mount such a quest at all

Forty-five million years ago, the supercontinent of Gondwanaland split apart. This created what are now known as India, Africa and South America. The huge landmass was named after the Gond people of India. Meeting a Gond storyteller on a visit to Bombay, Tahir Shah heard their ancient saga. He vowed to visit all three parts of Gondwanaland. As he travelled he met an extraordinary range of wanderers and expatriates, attended magical ceremonies and sought mythical treasures. Roughing it most of the way, Shah's expeditions move through sweltering India and Pakistan, Uganda and Rwanda, Kenya and Liberia, Brazil and finally Argentina's Patagonian glaciers. Roughing it for most of the journey, Shah shared his travels and his tales with a diverting mix of eccentric and entertaining characters, from Osman and Prideep, Bombay's answer to Laurel and Hardy, to Oswaldo Rodrigues Oswaldo, a well turned out Patagonian version of Danny De Vito.

When the Spanish Conquistadors swept through Peru in the sixteenth century, they were searching for great golden treasure. In 1572 they stormed the Inca stronghold of Vilcabamba, only to find the city deserted, burned, a nd already stripped of its wealth. According to legend the Incas had retreated deep into the jungle where they built another magnificent city in an inaccessible quarter of the cloud forest. After the lost city obsession had gnawed away at Tahir Shah for almost a decade, he could stand it no more. He put together an expedition and set out into Peru's Madre de Dios jungle, the densest cloud forest on earth. House of the Tiger King is the tale of Shah's remarkable adventure to find the greatest lost city of the Americas, and the treasure of the Incas. Along the way he found himself considering others who have spent decades in pursuit of lost cities, and asks why anyone would find it necessary to mount such a quest at all

For more than a century Henry Rider Haggard's novel King Solomon's Mines has inspired generations of young men to set forth in search of adventure. But long before Rider Haggard's classic, explorers, theologians and scientists scoured the known world for the source of King Solomon's astonishing wealth from a mysterious land known as Ophir. The ensuing journey takes him to a remote cliff-face monastery where the monks pull visitors up on a leather rope, to the ruined castles of Gondar, and to the rock hewn churches at Lalibela. Then in the south of the country Shah discovers a massive illegal gold mine, itself like something out of the Old Testament, with thousands of men, women and children digging with their hands. But the hardest leg of the journey is to the 'cursed mountain' of Tullu Wallel where legend says there lies an ancient shaft, once the entrance to Solomon's mines.

by Geoff O'Callaghan ISBN 978 1 846930249 Published: 2007 Pages: 240 Description The Sorcerer's Apprentice This is an anthology of seven of my short stories which tell the story of Mark Anderson, who becomes a sorcerer's apprentice. They form a continuous story. Mark is a runaway thirteen year old, fleeing his step father's demonic abuse. He is taken in by a gipsy shopkeeper, Dr. Kieran Guyot. who was an industrial chemist before he retired. Kieran is not your story-book gypsy. He lives in town, is a master of 'The Craft' and fights evil in all its forms. Mark's evil stepfather wants the boys soul to feed on for eternity, but Mark has other ideas. In the second story, mark and Kieran fight a terrible vampire who has picked their town as a hunting ground. A parapsychologist, who hates Magic, abducts mark to force him to develop his psychic abilities. Mark inherits a fortune when his billionaire uncle dies. He is dragged into African politics, when a dictator tries to extort millions of dollars from his company. Mark meets Philip, a mute boy, who is orphaned in a car crash. With his new found friend, Mark fights a demonic cult that enjoys human sacrifice. Finally, Mark and Philip become involved in the politics of magic, when one of the Council of Nine, who govern the Magical Craft, tries to eliminate Mark as a potential rival for membership. The stories were written long before Harry Potter appeared on the scene. A favourite of boys, who discover that Magic is not just for girls. About the Author Geoff was born in Jersey, then under German occupation, during World War II. Soon after the war, his family moved to Brisbane, Australia. He was educated at All Souls' School, Charters Towers - a rather traditional boarding school after the English style. What knowledge one didn't learn through the ears was well and truly belted in through the rear end, complete with blood blisters. His first contact with the cane was for not running around a sports oval fast enough. He now prides himself on a complete disinterest on sports and knows nothing about cricket. This led to his creative and artistic sides developing. He had a way with words, and was a skilled debater. After secondary school, he took to teaching, graduated, and then obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Aboriginal Education. For the next thirty years, he lived with remote aborigines in the Great Western Desert, firstly as a primary school teacher, and later as a School Principal and Administrator. During this time, he took up writing, mostly short stories and film scripts. It was a good way to while away lonely hours in the desert evenings. The development of miniature computers took his interest, and He wrote to the Department suggesting they take a serious look at the use of Computers in Education. Because of the proximity of a U.S. Sigint facility at Alice Springs, many of the students, especially the American kids, were interested in computing. At first they used Tandy Level Ones and Apples. While very primitive compared to today's machines, Many of the I.T. Community cut their teeth on computing under Geoff's tutelage. They even built a 'Dream 8080' and got it working.

Dyslexia, a language communication disability remains a little-understood and controversial disease among specialists, educators, and parents. In easy-to-understand terms, Dr. Huston provides suggestions for parents and teachers to help dyslexic children learn to cope.