The miscellany is a well-established publishing genre that has found a new market – and publishing success – in recent years. Its underlying assumption is that the joys of discovery are all the more intense for a reader when his or her discoveries are accidental, coming across unexpected facts, insights, summaries or connections. This is how we love to get our information these days – through concise wisdom and insight, arranged for delving, with a comprehensive index.

Packed with fascinating and thought-provoking information assembled into a brilliant patchwork, this miscellany is designed for the intelligent and open-minded reader to graze on. The book answers all our questions and explains terms that we may have heard of but only half-understand.

Have you ever wondered how the date of Easter is determined, and why it varies in different Christian traditions? Which animistic faith became an official religion? What did the Buddha mean by the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path? What did the ancient Romans actually do at the festivals of Saturnalia and the Eleusinian Mysteries?

Here are lists, facts, curiosities, explanations, clarifications, summaries – in short, a miscellany of information about the sacred and the arcane. This is a book in which to lose and enrich yourself immeasurably.