A witty, erudite primer to the world's most notorious drink.La Fée Verte (or "The Green Fairy") has intoxicated artists, poets, and writers ever since the late eighteenth century. Stories abound of absinthe's drug-like sensations of mood lift and inspiration due to the presence of wormwood, its infamous "special" ingredient, which ultimately leads to delirium, homicidal mania, and death. Opening with the sensational 1905 Absinthe Murders, Phil Baker offers a cultur...

A revised edition of Phil Baker’s critically lauded biography of artist and occultist, Austin Osman Spare.London has harbored many curious characters, but few more curious than the artist and visionary Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956).A controversial enfant terrible of the Edwardian art world, the young Spare was hailed as a genius and a new Aubrey Beardsley, while George Bernard Shaw reportedly said “Spare’s medicine is too strong for the average ma...

In The Faith Once Delivered Volume 1: 50 Days with the Disciples of the Apostles, I show you, the reader, how the second generation of Jesus followers continued to believe, teach and live the words of our Lord. Imagine spending 50 days with men like Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna, who were personally discipled by the original Apostles! I encourage you to join me on this journey and let these ancient writings deepen and refine your faith.

The earliest Christian document outside of the New Testament is almost certainly The Didache, which is also known as The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. In its final chapter, the author says that in the last days, the sheep will turn into wolves and the Deceiver of the world will commit abominations that have never been seen since the world began. Is this what Paul had in mind when he wrote 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12?In The Final Abominable Temple, Baker tra...

A work that combines biography and pyschogeography to trace Aleister Crowley's life in London."I dreamed I was paying a visit to London," Aleister Crowley wrote in Italy, continuing, "It was a vivid, long, coherent, detailed affair of several days, with so much incident that it would make a good-sized volume." Crowley had a love-hate relationship with London, but the city was where he spent much of his adult life, and it was the capital of the culture that created ...

One of the giants of popular fiction, with total sales of around fifty million books, Dennis Wheatley held twentieth-century Britain spellbound. His Black Magic novels like The Devil Rides Out created an oddly seductive and luxurious vision of Satanism, but in reality he was as interested in politics as occultism. Wheatley was closely involved with the secret intelligence community, and this powerfully researched study shows just how directly this drove his work, from his unlikely warnings...

In Faithful Witness, Phil Baker explains the theology of martyrdom that developed over the first 300 years of Christianity, and why that theology proved so powerful in the early years of the faith. Though many examples of early Christian martyrdom will be told, the intent of this book is not to simply give the accounts these martyrs' stories. This book is more about the why than the what.Why did they choose faithfulness over fear? Why did they choose dying over killing? Why did the...

City of cities, the modern world’s first great metropolis, London has shaped everything from clothing to youth culture. It has a unique place in the world’s memory, even as its role has changed from the capital of the planet to its playground, and as its lived history has mutated into the heritage industry.Londoner Phil Baker explores the city’s history, and the London of today, balancing well-known major events with more curious and eccentric details. He reveals a city of almost un...

Immortalised in Christopher Isherwood’s classic novel Mr Norris Changes Trains, Gerald Hamilton was the real-life model for the seedy but beguiling Mr Norris. Isherwood put him on the literary map but he was on other maps already, including those of police forces across Europe, and he was interned in Brixton prison during both world wars as a threat to national security. A Communist agent in the Thirties, Hamilton later drifted to the right and put his faith in the “sacred cause†of ...

This Element is an excerpt from From Concept to Consumer: How to Turn Ideas Into Money (9780137137473) by Phil Baker. Available in print and digital formats.A quick, practical, step-by-step overview of today’s winning product development processes, from world-renowned expert Phil Baker.Developing a product is an adventure: a blend of research, engineering, marketing, and intuition. It’s about balancing features, cost, and time to market while never quite knowing wh...

This is the eBook version of the printed book.This Element is an excerpt from From Concept to Consumer: How to Turn Ideas Into Money (9780137137473) by Phil Baker. Available in print and digital formats.Choose the right distribution for your product: assess the tradeoffs and maximize the opportunities.“Build it, and they will come.” That rarely happens. Not only do you need a marketing program, but also a plan to get your product to customers. What are your...

Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In this revealing study Phil Baker traces this cult writer's life - from the New York underworld of the 1940s to Mexico and the South American jungle, Tangier and the writing of Naked Lunch, Paris and the Beat Hotel, 1960s London, and small-town Kansas - in order to investigate his work as an autobiographical explorer of altered consciousness and inner space, re...