Book excerpt: From the preeminent fairy artist and his author wife comes the backstory of Cottington Hall and its intriguing inhabitants, both family and faeries. The rise and fall of the Cottingtons gives us humorous, and sometimes tragic, glimpses into how this eccentric British family became inexorably entwined with the faeries living among them during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. When a descendant, Maddi, visits the Cottingtons’s dilapidated hall, she finds herself caught up in a story of intrigue and mystery. While reading the letters and journals of her ancestors and discovering a wealth of inventions aimed at allowing humans to visit the fairy realm unharmed, Maddi slowly becomes aware of the faeries and their world. Also available from Brian and Wendy Froud: Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Tales and Brian Froud’s Goblins: 10 1/2 Anniversary Edition. “Nobody does fantasy art like the guy who gave us The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.” —io9