Published by Paper Tiger, 1965, hardcover, large format, illustrated, index, 300 pages, condition: very good.

'There is a world just around the corner of your mind, where reality is an intruder and dreams come true... You may escape into it at will. You need no secret password, no magic want or Aladdin's lamp; only your own imagination and curiosity... about things that never were.'

I've got a huge beast of a hardback edition of this book, gifted me by my grandfather in the early nineties. He'd rescued it out of a bin at the university where he worked.

I haven't a clue why someone would chuck this thing out; it was quite possibly the most influential book ever on my young mind.

This book is chock-full of myths and legends from around the world. From ancient Aztec gods, to Unicorns, from Tengus and Knackers to Frankenstein's monster, they're all here.

But what really, REALLY made an impact on my young mind was how the book is written; the style is that of a real encyclopedia, in that everything contained therein is written as though it were fact, not fiction. My young mind was boggled, my eyes popping out of their sockets as I read about Wendigos, Brownies, Kelpies and Redcaps as though they were real, living, breathing creatures that lived out there in the world, hidden, unseen, ready to pounce.

The possibilities seemed endless.

My copy is sat here, not three feet away. It looks sorry for itself, now; the spine is falling to bits. I've had a look at how much it'd cost to rebind it. Turns out, quite a lot.

I could buy a new one, I suppose, for far less than it would cost to recover this one. But you know what? I probably won't. I'll probably just get this one rebound. It's had such an impact on my life, provided such fuel for the fires of my imagination.

One day I'll hopefully have children and I can pass it on to them, that they, too, might read in wonder about things that never were.