Book excerpt: Burdened by the woes of a workaday life, the end of any good news, and the loss of her formidable father, Signe Pike, a 20-something editor at Penguin in New York, found herself needing something – anything – to believe in again. Her disenchantment made her long for the magical stories of her youth – the faeries that had enchanted her as a child. Her voyage of discovery takes her all over the world, tracking evidence and folklore of 'little people'. Travelling to Mexico, Ireland and Scotland, she learns of the rich variety of tales about these creatures, and what they say about the cultures from which they originate. Laced with research as well as local legend, her own family history, and a healthy dose of scepticism, Pike's Faery Tale is a memoir of the search for a long-buried spark of wonder, and something to believe in. Faery Tale is for anyone who has dared to believe in magic and who knows there is a world beyond the one that meets the eye.