Books by Tahir Shah

As a child living in the English countryside, a constant stream of people turned up at Tahir Shah's family home, all in search of his father - the writer and thinker Idries Shah. Among them were literary giants, including the classicist Robert Graves, Nobel laureate Doris Lessing, and the celebrated American novelist, J. D. Salinger.On one occasion when Salinger had just departed, Tahir asked why the author of The Catcher in the Rye wrote books at all. His father responded by saying: 'Salinger writes because if he stops he'll turn to stone.'Inspired by this quote, The Reason to Write is an account of Tahir's journey through the trials and tribulations of what it is to be an author. Describing the ins and outs of the literary world by charting his own experiences, Tahir calls into question the established norms of a publishing system most of us take for granted.A book of exceptional insight, The Reason to Write is packed with tips for budding authors, examples of what has worked and not worked, and an appreciation of how best to navigate the ever-turbulent waters of the literary trade.The overriding message of this often-hilarious literary cornucopia is simple: authors should write for themselves, and keep control - which means never selling out, no matter how appealing the lure.As a bestselling writer, whose forty or more books have been translated into dozens of languages the world over, Tahir Shah is regarded as one of the most original authors working today. The Reason to Write established him as a preeminent expert on the literary arts, as well as a forecaster of the fast-changing landscape of things to come.

Oddball and loner Oliver Quinn was raised by his uncle, the proprietor ofNew York's most bizarre emporium of Oriental rugs, Ozymandias & Son.Zoned out more than he's zoned in, Oliver perceives patterns in everything -from fallen autumn leaves in Central Park, to the freckles on a stranger's face.When his uncle gives him a mysterious paperweight - said to have been inthe family for centuries - since it was discovered by a farmer on theMongolian Steppes - Oliver's life changes in the most extraordinary way.Gaining entry into the secret Realm that shrouds all our lives, he learns whathe imagines to be reality is no more than a fragment of what actually exists.In a multiverse, where every permutation is not only possible but certain, ourworld is an insignificant backwater. With the veil lifted, Oliver is introduced toa parallel life form with which we share the multiverse...The mysterious and all-powerful race of Jinn.Far from the loveable blue-skinned giants projected by Hollywood, Jinn arecapable of wreaking terror on an unknown scale. When they go rogue, as theyfrequently do, they must be captured. This perilous task is entrusted to thebravest fraternity of warriors in existence - The Jinn Hunters.Stumbling into the secret heart of the Realm, Oliver learns of the Prism.A vast penitentiary fashioned from sheets of impregnable glass, it containslegions of incarcerated Jinn.But, as Oliver soon comes to understand, his arrival is no accident.Having brooded for an eternity - since being imprisoned by King Solomon -the most evil Jinn in all existence has just escaped...Nequissimus.The future of the Realm rests on Oliver Quinn, whose ancestral bloodline isprimed to capture the great Jinn, thereby saving not only humanity,but the entire multiverse.A cross between The Thousand and One Nights and The Men in Black,THE PRISM is the first awe-inspiring novel in Tahir Shah's much-awaitedJINN HUNTER series.Quite possibly the most original book of its age, it lures the reader into aTwilight Zone conjured from pure imagination.

Collects traditional stories of Morocco that are recounted by an eccentric cast of characters: from master masons who work only at night to Sufi wise men who write for soap operas and Tuareg guides addicted to reality TV.

Look into the eyes of a jinn and you stare into the depths of your own soul... Writer and film-maker Tahir Shah - in his 30s, married, with two small children - was beginning to wilt under brash, cramped, ennervating British city life.