A short introduction to SYK Publishing and the Seeking That Which Was Lost series.
Official promotional video · SYK Publishing
Twenty books across four lines: contemplative non-fiction, literary fiction, companions to the Eastern classics, and language learning. By S Y Kelake, published by SYK Publishing.
SYK Publishing is the imprint and trading name of Centerline Publishing Group Ltd — an independent press dedicated to work that sits at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, martial arts, and the study of human communication.
We publish titles that are long in thought and short in compromise — books written to be kept, not skimmed. Every volume is produced to a single standard: clarity of argument, precision of language, and a centred point of view.
Our catalogue is anchored by two ongoing projects: the Seeking That Which Was Lost series and the NLP Series, both authored by our founder, S Y Kelake BSc (Hons).
"Returning to centre —
one book at a time."
S Y Kelake is a Shifu in Chinese Gong Fu and a martial arts practitioner and teacher of more than thirty years. He is a father, a student of Forensic Psychology and Psychological Studies, a publisher, a journalist, a masseur, a yoga practitioner, a meditator, and a man who has lived long enough with difficulty to know that wisdom is not something you acquire — it is something you slowly recover.
He was born with an autistic mind that processes the world with unusual directness — a quality he has come to regard not as deficit but as gift, sharpening his capacity to read people and situations with a clarity that formal education took years to catch up with.
He came late to academic study but carried its questions for decades before he knew their names. His work sits at the intersection of ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding — drawing from Chinese martial philosophy, the hermetic traditions, forensic psychology, and the hard-won knowledge of a life examined honestly and lived fully.
Following a terminal cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, he chose to spend whatever time remained doing what he had always intended: sharing what he had learned, in whatever form it could take, with whoever needed it. The Seeking That Which Was Lost series is the result of that commitment — a twelve-volume conversation about what modern life has lost from the great teachings of humanity, and what becomes possible when we begin to recover it.
He writes as S Y Kelake. He publishes through SYK Publishing — the imprint of Centerline Publishing Group Ltd.
When East meets West in modern times — five volumes on how old ways of thinking return to benefit ourselves, and those we ripple out toward.
A new fictional direction from S Y Kelake. The Master Wu Cycle weaves Eastern philosophy, Daoist and martial mind, and Western psychology — a literary journey that asks what becomes possible when ancient practice meets contemporary life.
Mateo Reyes is twenty-eight, undefeated in his region, three weeks from the title fight that is meant to set the rest of his life. On a beach in San Juan, an unfit-looking older man says a handful of quiet, accurate things to him. Mateo walks away. Three weeks later in Madrid, the dismissal will cost him. A novel about the gap between being a champion and being a man.
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Tomás Martínez had built a life that worked. Then, on an October afternoon in a café on Calle San Francisco, the boy who had been his closest friend at eleven walks back in. Older. Quieter. Returned from the mountains a different man. The ground begins to move. The work is not to build a new self — it is to turn toward the one who has been there the whole time.
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The third volume of the cycle. Currently in development.
Follow for launch
The fourth volume of the cycle. Currently in development.
Follow for launch
The closing volume of the cycle. Currently in development.
Follow for launchGentle, unhurried walks through the great Eastern texts — written for adolescent readers, for first-time visitors, and for anyone returning to the tradition after a long absence. Each chapter is offered in three layers: the original, a plain prose retelling, and a long warm reflection on what it might mean for a life lived now.
The teacher is the pointing, the student the point. A gentle first walk into the teaching of the Buddha — written for adolescents and adults meeting the tradition for the first time.
A first step through Lao Tzu in eighty-one short chapters — each in three layers: the verse, a plain prose paraphrase, and a warm reflection. The voice is that of a father speaking to his children — patient, gently amused, unhurried. Go gently. Hold lightly what confuses you. Come back often.
The I Ching has been waiting for three thousand years. A patient walk through all sixty-four hexagrams, from Qian (The Creative) to Wei Ji (Before Completion). Companion volume to The Quiet Door.
A four-volume walk through the great Daoist classic. The first three volumes follow Zhuangzi's own structure — Inner, Outer, Miscellaneous Chapters — while the fourth is a lifelong companion: glossary, character index, thematic index, and synthetic essays.
Glossary, character index, thematic index, synthetic essays. The volume you return to.
£2.99You have studied the language before. Perhaps more than once. Each time, life interrupted — and the lessons quietly fell off the end of the to-do list. These are not textbooks. They are short, scenario-based companions: real conversations, beat by beat, designed to be read on the plane the night before a trip.
A companion for the perpetual restarter. Real Mandarin conversations — checking into a hotel, ordering at a restaurant, hailing a taxi, meeting someone on a long train ride — walked through beat by beat. Phonetics made friendly. Sixty essential characters. The rope ladder out of the freeze.
A companion for the perpetual restarter. European Spanish — the vosotros form, the c/z distinción, Castilian vocabulary throughout. Scenarios set in Madrid, Seville, Bilbao, Barcelona. The eight verbs that carry most of what you want to say. Sixty essential signs from a Spanish trip.
Direct purchase from SYK Publishing is launching soon. Tap Notify Me on any title to be the first to know when each book becomes available.
All six volumes of the Seeking That Which Was Lost series gathered as one unified work — with a new preface, an exclusive expanded chapter, and a closing that brings the entire arc home.
On holding lightly through the layers of a life. The first volume of a continuation written from the other side of the original deadline — a quieter companion to The Book of Yalun, for readers becoming parents themselves.
On Confucius, on training, on what holds when the body cannot. Across thirty years of training, family life, and the storm of a terminal cancer diagnosis at forty-three — what the long Confucian tradition has meant to one practitioner of Chinese martial arts.
The subtle force of words. Drawing on NLP, philosophy and communication theory, an examination of the invisible architecture of meaning that runs beneath what is said — through misdirection, suggestion, framing, and the ways speech can be both weapon and medicine.
Series One — The Operator and the Formula. Fiction is the series looking at itself in a mirror. Eight essays applying attachment theory, moral drift, the hollow core, Shadow psychology and the adversarial formula to Leon Montana, Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist, Jason Bourne, James Bond and Bill. Analysis of fictional characters only. Not clinical opinion.
What does it mean to be level? Not calm. Not unfeeling. Not the performance of composure. Level, in the deepest sense, means being in genuine relationship with your own centre — finding it, maintaining it, and returning to it as many times as necessary when the ground moves beneath you. A book about the practice of return.
A modern perspective. A meditation on the two opposing forces that pull every human life away from centre.
Mastering the art of fighting without fighting. The practitioner who has moved through conflict into something quieter and more powerful. Drawing on three decades of martial arts practice — the warrior whose final form is peace.
On standing when everything pulls you down. A sustained, honest examination of what it means to find your own centre — and to build your life from it.
A comprehensive introduction to Bajiquan, the explosive internal martial art known as the Eight Extremes Fist. History, philosophy, the eight foundational techniques, training drills, and the integration with Traditional Chinese Medicine — written by a Western practitioner of three decades.
Returning to the centred self. Balance, duality, and the forgotten art of living measured. The teaching of Jesus, the Buddha, Hermes Trismegistus and PTAH — each pointing toward the same essential truth: that balance is not compromise but wisdom. Be centred. Be measured. Be level and upright.
Most people have been using NLP their entire lives. They just did not know what to call it. Understanding and rewiring your mind. The complete landscape of Neuro-Linguistic Programming — the 12 Presuppositions, Representational Systems, Rapport, Anchoring, State Management, Well-Formed Outcomes, Reframing, and a 30-day practice framework.
You have the foundations. Now the real work begins. The technical core of NLP — the models and protocols that form the curriculum of formal practitioner training. The Meta Model, the Milton Model, Submodalities, Metaprograms, Logical Levels, Sleight of Mouth, Change Personal History, and the full range of practitioner-level interventions.
For those who want to go all the way. Advanced models, therapeutic protocols, and professional applications that define master-level practice: Timeline Therapy, Parts Integration, the Fast Phobia Cure, deep modelling methodology, and the full range of clinical and coaching applications. Closes with an honest treatment of the evidence base and professional ethics.
Beginner to Master Practitioner. All three volumes — Foundations, Practitioner, and Master Practitioner — consolidated into a single definitive reference, with exclusive new content, a unified glossary, and the complete progression from first principles to advanced clinical practice. Over 113,000 words.
You don't need to master NLP to use it. A focused, practical companion for the reader who needs results now — managing difficult relationships, holding their ground in a negotiation, walking into a high-stakes conversation with composure intact. The most directly useful NLP techniques distilled into a single applied volume. Read in an evening, put to work tomorrow.
Readings, book signings, and speaking engagements. Dates are added as they are confirmed.
All titles from SYK Publishing are distributed directly through Apple Books and Kobo. Selected paperbacks and merchandise are available through Amazon.
Organisations, teachers, and works that have shaped the SYK Publishing catalogue. Linked here as recommendations, not affiliations.
The formal NLP training programme under which the author completed his Master Practitioner certification. A recommended path for serious students of the field.
thehappinessfoundation.co.uk →Direct link to S Y Kelake's full author page on Apple Books, for the complete up-to-date catalogue.
books.apple.com →All SYK Publishing titles currently listed on the Kobo storefront, in a single search view.
kobo.com →A long-form essay series running in parallel with the books, exploring themes of centredness, language, and forensic psychology.
Enquire for access →A short list: Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning; Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings; the works of Carl Jung on the shadow.
See our response titles →With over thirty years in senior marketing and sales, and three decades as a martial arts teacher, the author welcomes enquiries from practitioners, businesses, and serious students.
Contact us →Three channels, three perspectives — the publishing house, the author, and the imprint. Follow whichever fits, or all three.
Rights enquiries, event bookings, press, merchandise, and reader correspondence — all welcome.
