Mists and Magic

"The boys were lost in a close grey wilderness. To their left and right the dark bulk of the wall stretched a few yards before plunging from sight in the thick rolling blanket. Slowly they rose from their crouch under the wall and turned to look over the other side, straining their eyes into the swirling mist. Then they both heard it '" Magic on the moors, where mist hides the sunlit valleys below and strangers come walking out of another world. Magic by moonlight, when a dream-ship sets sail, and wishes come true, and stone heads sing for joy. Ancient magic that can split a horse's hoof and rob an old man of this livelihood. Modern magic that brings a wizard dropping in, punctual to the minute, eight floors up in a tower block. In new stories written by favourite authors especially for this book, in folk-tales and legends and poems, Dorothy Edwards brings together spells and charms, witches and mermaids, the creatures of the other world and the unexpected encounters that are the stuff of magic: "She was not at all the sort of person one expected to meet on a mountain summit on a hot afternoon. Clad in a neat suit with medium-heeled shoes, she had the appearance of a lady's maid or companion. 'My granny was a witch, ' she said. 'The villagers pulled down her cottage and threw her into the duckpond which was fortunately not very full at the time...'"