Sean Martin Bücher

This comprehensive guide offers insights for those looking to transform their BBQ skills into an artistic culinary experience. It provides expert techniques, tips, and creative ideas to enhance flavor and presentation, making it suitable for both novices and seasoned grillers seeking to elevate their outdoor cooking.

A marriage between two unlikely characters - wood-fired food and well-chosen wines - brought to you by the real-life marriage of a pitmaster and a sommelier.

Catharism emerged as the most notable heresy of the Middle Ages, primarily in Languedoc and Italy. The Cathars believed the world was evil and advocated for a life of prayer, work, fasting, and non-violence, claiming to uphold a true Christian heritage dating back to apostolic times. They rejected the Catholic Church, viewing it as the Church of Satan, and conducted their services in fields, barns, and homes. Gaining support from the nobility amidst the political turmoil in southern France, the Cathars also resonated with peasants and artisans. Notably, they respected women, who played significant roles in their movement. Alarmed by their growing influence, the Church established the Inquisition and initiated the Albigensian Crusade to eradicate the heresy. This marked the first Crusade against fellow Christians and was a precursor to European genocide. The fall of the Cathar fortress Montségur in 1244 led to the movement's near obliteration, though it lingered into the early fourteenth century. Today, the mystique of the Cathars endures, and the narrative of their beliefs and the myths surrounding them continues to captivate audiences.

Alchemy has traditionally been viewed as 'the history of an error', an example of mediaeval gullibility and greed, in which alchemists tried to turn lead into gold, create fabulous wealth and find the elixir of life. But alchemy has also been described as 'the mightiest secret that a man can possess', and it obsessed the likes of Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle and many of the founders of modern science. This book explores its history, from its mysterious beginnings in Egypt and China, through the Hellenistic world and the early years of Islam and into mediaeval Europe.

A concise and accessible history of infectious and non-infectious diseases, complete with the most up-to-date research on 2014’s Ebola outbreakUsing an interdisciplinary approach, this survey chronicles the historical and geographical evolution of infectious and non-infectious diseases, from their prehistoric origins to the present day, offering a comprehensive, accessible guide to ailments and the medical methods used to combat them. Even before recorded history began, disease plagued human civilizations, claiming more lives than natural disasters and warfare combined. The ongoing battle with new and resurgent diseases has challenged physicians, scientists, and historians in their struggle to identify causes, antidotes, and preventative measures to combat these epidemics. Analyzing case studies including the Black Death, Spanish Flu, cholera, leprosy, syphilis, cancer, and Ebola, this book systematically maps the development of trends and the latest research on disease into a concise and enlightening timeline. Offering a fascinating and compelling insight into a popular area of social history, this easy-to-read introduction will tell you all you need to know about disease and the ongoing quest to protect human health.

Andrei Tarkovsky is the most celebrated Russian filmmaker since Eisenstein and one of the most important directors to have emerged during the 1960s and 1970s. Although he made only seven feature films, each one was a major landmark in cinema, the most well-known being the medieval epic Andrei Rublev. In this book, Sean Martin considers the whole of Tarkovsky's oeuvre, seeking to demystify Tarkovsky as a 'difficult' director whilst celebrating his radical aesthetic of long takes and tracking shots. AVAILABLE FROM MARCH 2011

Gnosticism is the name given to various religious schools that proliferated in the first centuries after Christ, nearly becoming the dominant form of Christianity, but eventually branded as heretical by the emerging Christian church. The long and diverse history of Gnosticism is recounted here, as well as reasons for its continued relevance today. Although some Gnostic beliefs are close to mainstream Christianity, others examined here include that the world is imperfect because it was created by an evil god who was constantly at war with the true, good God; that Christ and Satan were brothers; that reincarnation exists; and that women are the equal of men. Also covered is the influence Gnostics had on the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the psychologist Carl Jung, the Existentialists, the New Age movement, and writers as diverse as William Blake, W. B. Yeats, Albert Camus, and Philip K. Dick.

Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. Flourishing principally in the Languedoc and Italy, the Cathars taught that the world is evil and must be transcended through a simple life of prayer, work, fasting and non-violence. They believed themselves to be the heirs of the true heritage of Christianity going back to apostolic times, and completely rejected the Catholic Church, regarding it as the Church of Satan. Martin recounts the story of the ever mysterious Cathars in this lively and gripping book.

The Knights Templar rose from humble beginnings to become the most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages. Formed to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, they participated in the Crusades and rapidly gained wealth, lands, and influence. Seemingly untouchable for nearly two centuries, they fell from grace spectacularly after the loss of the Holy Land. In the ensuing centuries the Templars have exerted a unique influence over European history; orthodox historians see them as nothing more than soldier-monks whose arrogance was their ultimate undoing, while others see them as occultists of the first order.