Wild Time and the Ritual Year

A vivid blend of memoir, nature writing and environmental and political theory, Tamás’s The Book of Mysteries seeks new answers in old folk ways. In an effort to deepen her relationship with the non-human world, Tamás set out on a journey across the UK guided by the wheel of the year, marking each solstice, equinox and the midpoints between them with a ritual drawn from ancient pagan traditions. From a confrontation with the sharp pains of winter at Samhain in Edinburgh to a giddy experience of collective joy at Padstow's May Day, she finds in these traditional practices electric potential for transforming our relationship to the cycles of nature and the passage of time.

At a time of burgeoning interest in seasonal ritual and folk culture, The Book of Mysteries is a vivid exploration of its capacity to root us more deeply into our environments and our communities. With Tamás…