"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...'"

Midsummer Magic
Now It Is the Time of Night / William Shakespeare

Mist and Moonlight
Midnight Wood / Raymond Wilson
Night Walk / Dorothy Edwards
The Moon Is Up / Alfred Noyes
Moon Magic / Margaret Gore
The Moon It Is Red / Ben Johnson

Three Witches
Witches' Charm / Ben Johnson
Witch at Home / Dorothy Edwards
Witch in Retirement / Irene Holness
Witch at the Well / Kathleen Hersom

Spells and Curses
Should You See the Wise Woman / W. Force Stead
The Old Stone Faces / Ann Pilling
La Belle Dame sans Merci / John Keats

Magic Ancient and Modern
As a Huge Stone / William Wordsworth
The Mother Stone / Angela Pickering
Tilly Witch in the Park / Pat Kremer

Sea Magic
Full Fathom Five / William Shakespeare
Something Rich and Strange / Irene Holness
Overheard on a Saltmarsh / Harold Monro
The Sea-Morgan's Baby / Ruth L. Tongue
The Moon-Child / Fiona Macleod

From Oberon's Kingdom
An Elfin Knight / Joseph Rodman Drake
The Travelling Tree / Ruth L. Tongue
Robin Goodfellow
The Grig's Red Cap / Ruth L. Tongue

Three Wishes
Moon Light, Moon Bright
Something in the Wind / Margaret Joy
Fairy Godmother? / Pamela Sykes
Christmas Crackers / Marjorie Darke

Birds and Beasts
Grey Goose and Gander
Cuckoo Song / Rudyard Kipling
Cuckoo Fair / Ruth C. Payne
Cure for a Stye / James Woodforde
Witchcat Watchcat / Ruth McDonald
Salamander / Benvenuto Cellini (trs. J.A. Symonds)

Magic Places
Cities Drowned in Olden Time / Henry Newbolt
The Pirates and the Drowned Bells / Anne English
Storm Children / Pauline Hill
The Men of Black Tup / Frank Charles

Holy Magic
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Four Eggs a Penny / Ruth L. Tongue
Three Charms
The Spunky
The Girl Who Boxed and Angel / Dorothy Edwards

Come Follow
Queen Mab / William Shakespeare
The Fairies
Half a Loaf Is Better than No Bread / Edward Thomas
Goblins' Song / James Telfer
A Fairy Ring / John Aubrey
Joey Linny / Mary Webb
The Fairies' Farewell / Richard Corbet

Winter in the Wood
I Fear that Puck Is Dead / Eugene Lee Hamilton