Sarah Clegg for Perilous Enchantment

The author of The Dead of Winter brings us a revelatory and bewitching history of fairies and the ever-changing role they have played in our imagination.

We often think of fairies as tiny, glittering creatures fluttering about in pastel tulle, but they haven't always been so benign. Historian Sarah Clegg explores the true history of fairies and the menace and ambiguity that always lurks within the shimmering fantasy.

This history takes us from elf fires in Iceland to a burial mound in Ireland; and from a stream in Cottingley where two sisters created a fairy hoax to a modern-day fairy ball in Los Angeles. Along the way, Clegg reveals the creatures' connection to ancient gods and their role in the witch-trials, and she examines their seductive presence in romantasy today.

This is a story of how fairy myths grew and spread across Europe, of how they changed and developed, and why we have, for centuries, been so enthralled by the danger and enchantment of the fae.

Sarah Clegg is the author of Woman's Lore and The Dead of Winter. Clegg has a PhD in ancient history from the University of Cambridge and is a former bookseller. She now works in publishing.