Once... (2001)
Once... by James Herbert

Upon a time.

Remember the faery stories you were told as a child? Tales of tiny, magical, winged beings and elves, wicked witches and goblins. Demons...

What if one day you found they were true? What if, when you became an adult, you discovered they were all based on fact? What if you met the fantasy and it was all so very real? That's what happened to Thom Kindred.

The wonders were revealed to him. But so were the horrors, for not far behind the Good, there always lurks the Bad. And the Bad had designs on Thom. The Bad would show him real evil. He would see the 'hellhagges' and the demons. He would be touched by perverted passion. And corruption. And he would encounter his own worst nightmare. The Bad would seek to destroy him. And only the magic of the little beings would be able to help him.

Quotes...

James Herbert “Two streets away from where I lived, Jack the Ripper spliced one of his victims. And I remember where we lived had a hook on the wall outside the door. I was told that was where the decapitated heads of criminals were stuck after they were caught. I was only six at the time.”

- James Herbert, from “Meet Herbert the Horrible” by Jeremy Smith, Bath Advertiser, July 1987