The middle kingdom

"No matter what one doubts", wrote Yeats, "one never doubts the faeries for...they stand to reason". The author, a friend of both Yeats and the great folklorist Douglas Hyde, is a staunch believer in "the ancient and continuing spirit life of the countryside". Writing not as folklorist but as an historian, he records many manifestations of the Irish fairy world in recent years. Strikingly persuasive, this tackles in a serious and intelligent manner a subject that has a strong romantic appeal.