A classic work of rural magic realism from one of Britain's greatest children's novelists Four interconnected fables of a way of living in rural England that is now disappeared. Craftsmen pass on, or withhold, secrets of their relationship with the natural world, which gives them the material from which they create useful and beautiful things.

Smiths and chandlers, steeplejacks and quarrymen, all live and work hand in hand with the seasons, the elements and the land.

There is a mutual respect and a knowledge of the magical here that somehow, somewhere was lost to us.

These fables beautifully recapture and restore it to us. And a very particular landscape, on the outskirts of industrial Manchester, is brought vividly to life.