ROUND ABOUT AND LONG AGO: Tales From the English Counties

Twenty-eight short, satisfying chimney corner tales, arranged according to the counties in which they were recorded though many of course are familiar elsewhere in the British Isles and some closely parallel recently published retellings from Russia and the Grimms. Most of Colwell's selections concern encounters with fairies, witches, boggarts, etc., or instances of such creatures' intervention in human affairs -- sometimes to teach a skeptic never again to mock the fairies, but just as often to be outwitted by the simple farmwives and fishermen they pester. As set down here all the stories have the directness and rhythm of country lore perfected by repeated tellings and passed on by believers to show that even for ordinary folk enchantment is not all that far away.