Perilous Enchantment: The True History of Faeries

Sarah Clegg is coming to Topping & Company Booksellers on Wednesday 14 October for a talk titled Perilous Enchantment: The True History of Faeries. It's a look at the history of fairies and their place in the human imagination, and it's exactly the kind of thing that works best in a bookshop setting.

Clegg's starting point is the gap between the fairies we're used to—the benign, glittering creatures of popular imagination—and the menace and ambiguity that have always lurked within the fae. From there, she traces how fairy myths grew and spread across Europe, and the talk pulls in a wide range of examples to show that reach: elf fires in Iceland, a burial mound in Ireland, and the Cottingley fairy hoax. She also looks at their connection to ancient gods, their role in the witch-trials, and their seductive presence in today's romantasy.

It's a broad sweep, and Clegg has the background to carry it. She's a former bookseller now working in publishing, with a PhD in ancient history from the University of Cambridge, and she's the author of Woman's Lore and The Dead of Winter. That combination of a historian's eye and a bookseller's love for the story is what gives the talk its shape—it's not just a list of myths, but a look at how they've shifted over centuries.

The talk is at Topping & Company Booksellers, 1 Museum Street, York YO1 7DT, on Wednesday 14 October. It starts at 7pm, with doors opening at 6.30pm.