In this vivid blend of memoir, nature writing and social criticism, Rebecca Tamás seeks new answers in old folk ways. Suffering from burn-out and grief both environmental and personal, Tamás sets out on a journey across the UK guided by the wheel of the year, marking each node of seasonal change with a ritual. From a confrontation with the sharp terror 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 natural world and the passage of time. Intellectually probing and richly lyrical, The Book of Mysteries follows the drumbeat of ancient ritual towards an immersion in the wild time of the seasons, where we can free ourselves from encounter the life-giving otherness of the natural world.