Nicholas Fraser – författare

The story begins in a dusty village lost in the Argentine pampas, where a girl, born out of wedlock, scrambles her way to the capital city by the time she is fifteen. It ends with the embalmed corpse of Eva Peron being hidden away by nervous politicians for fear that if the working people of Argentina knew where it was buried, it would inspire them to revolution.In between Eva Peron became first the actress Eva Duarte, then the mistress of Colonel Perón, then, in October 1945 after the "shirtless ones" had swept Peron into office, the president's wife. In the colorful, tumultuous setting of postwar Argentina, she wielded a power--spiritual and practical--that has few parallels outside of hereditary monarchy. She was literally idolized by millions but was hated and feared by many as well. She became Evita, the legend.

Evolutionary biologists have long been concerned by the incompleteness of the fossil record. Although our knowledge of the diversity of life in ‘deep time’ has improved, many lineages of extant animals and plants still have only sparse fossil documentation. Even groups with ‘hard parts’ that render them suitable for fossilization often only have a limited record. Thus, although the fossil record is viewed as critical to the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of life, many biologists question its utility. Fortunately discoveries of occurrences of exceptionally preserved fossils, known as conservation Lagerstätten (Konservat-Lagerstätten), shed much light on the past diversity of life. This volume reviews selected conservation Lagerstätten for terrestrial animals and plants throughout the Phanerozoic worldwide and includes sites in Asia, Europe and North and South America. Together the papers demonstrate the enormous progress made in recent years both in documenting the biodiversity of such extraordinary fossil deposits and also in elucidating the geological conditions for and biogeochemical processes behind the formation of conservation Lagerstätten. Each contribution has been written by eminent palaeontologists who have enlisted additional expertise to make each chapter as comprehensive as possible.N.B. Some corrections are available to this book and may be obtained from the publisher

The Book of Forbidden Prayer is a dark esoteric study of the words people feared, concealed, condemned, and whispered only in moments of desperation. Throughout history, prayer has not always belonged to peace, mercy, and comfort. It has also appeared in places of terror, grief, possession, vengeance, exile, punishment, and spiritual dread. In hidden manuscripts, old charms, deathbed fears, exorcistic traditions, curse prayers, protective invocations, and forbidden fragments, human beings have long believed that certain words could reach beyond the ordinary world and disturb forces best left untouched.Nicholas Fraser explores the sinister side of sacred language, examining how prayer has been used not only to seek salvation, but also to bind, banish, curse, protect, accuse, confess, summon courage, and confront darkness. This book moves through shadowed chapels, ruined monasteries, old houses, graveyards, prison cells, sickrooms, folklore, occult tradition, and religious fear, revealing the strange boundary between devotion and danger.This is not a practical ritual guide, nor a book encouraging the use of harmful spiritual practices. Instead, it is a serious and atmospheric exploration of forbidden prayer as history, folklore, literature, and belief. Within its pages are warnings, dark examples, historical-style fragments, fictionalised prayer texts, and detailed studies of the kinds of words once believed to carry terrible power.For readers drawn to occult history, demonology, forbidden manuscripts, religious mystery, folklore, curses, exorcism traditions, and the hidden language of the unseen, The Book of Forbidden Prayer offers a descent into the darker side of spiritual speech — where faith becomes fear, silence becomes protection, and words themselves become dangerous.