For Fear of Little Men, one of John Blackburn’s most tightly plotted novels, is presented in a new edition with an introduction by John Pelan.

Up the airy mountain Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting, For fear of little men;

So wrote William Allingham in his classic poem, a chilling look at the fairy folk. John Blackburn has taken the poem as a cue to author what is considered his finest single work.

There are places in the world that are seemingly infested by a genius loci or worse. Places where nothing lives and nothing grows; for those that foolishly investigate such sites, death, or worse, awaits. There is such a place in North Wales, shunned by locals for three thousand years. Something is there, something old and evil. Is it this something that is responsible for events taking place across the world? A breakout of food poisoning, the death of a Soviet defector at the Berlin Wall, crazed outbreaks of violence throughout the U. K?

It’s up to Sir Marcus Levin and his wife Tania to undo the Gordian Knot of this riddle while there’s still time… Will they succeed against this seemingly ancient and unstoppable evil?

Originally published in 1972, For Fear of Little Men is presented in a hardcover format.