First history of 'real' fairies sighted throughout history as recorded in historical sources, by the world's two leading fairy historians. Historical fairies are not sweet like Tinkerbell but mostly dangerous and best avoided.

Acknowledgements & Editors' Note 6 We Need to Talk about Fairies 7 Fairy Tribes Biographies English Fairies 1 Fairy Queens and Pharisees 2 Pucks and Lights 3 Pixies and Pixy Rocks 4 Fairy Magic and the Cottingley Photographs 5 Fairy Barrows and Cunning Folk 6 Fairy Holes and Fairy Butter Celtic and Norse Fairies 7 The Sidhe and Fairy Forts 8 The Seelie and Unseelie Courts 9 Trows and Trowie Wives Orkney and Shetland by Laura Coulson 10 The Fair Folk and Enchanters Wales by Richard Suggett 11 Pouques and the Faiteaux 12 George Waldron and the Good People 13 Piskies and Knockers Travelling Fairies 14 Puritans and Pukwudgies 15 Fairy Bread and Fairy Squalls 16 Banshees and Changelings Notes

'Enchanting.' Mail on Sunday; 'Engaging and authoritative... British fairies, it turns out, are classic eccentrics.' Sunday Telegraph; 'Detail on local mythology... sparkling.' Literary Review; 'A big insight into the lives of little people... provocative.'; Glasgow Herald; 'A gazetteer of myths, legends, and sightings.' Independent