Author: Briggs, Katharine

Encyclopaedias & reference works

Published on 11 September 2025 by Octopus Publishing Group (Monoray) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 224 pages, Roughly 50 vignettes and 12 full page black and white illustrations.
223 x 143 x 21 | 342g

'When it comes to the world of fairies Katharine Briggs is the greatest authority by many a league, and this is the finest guide ever written.'PHILIP PULLMAN'Katharine Briggs's Dictionary is truly wonderful: vivid, witty, and full of a profound and generous knowledge that will thrill both children and adults. Spectacular.'KATHERINE RUNDELL'Katharine Briggs is an editor of such surpassing knowledge that one suspects that she may have sources among witches, ghosts and fairies.'DIANE PURKISSA new edition of Katharine Briggs's short A-Z of Folklore, with beautiful, bespoke illustrations by Fee Greening.

Katharine Mary Briggs (1898-1980) was a British folklorist, scholar and author, recognised today as the most important archivist of British folktales. Over the course of her life, she published fourteen books, lectured widely and was president of The Folklore Society. Her books were read and used by contemporaries including J.R.R. Tolkien. To reflect the monumental work Briggs did to collect, catalogue and publish folk stories from Britain and Ireland before the turn of the 21st century, The Folklore Society present an annual award in her honour.

This new edition of one of Briggs' seminal works is a dictionary of folklore creatures and tales, illustrated in rich detail with beautiful black and white line drawings by artist Fee Greening. From brownies to Shetland selkies, Cornish spriggans to Nuckelavee (the most horrid of monsters in all of Britain) Briggs's Dictionary of Fairies is a treasury of stories, songs and creatures passed down from one generation to the next.

'Katharine Briggs is the surest guide to British folklore in the twentieth century.'JACK ZIPES'Katharine Briggs is the magic mirror on the wall. Ask her what you will...'RICHARD ADAMS