Once upon a time, there was a rich merchant who had three daughters. The girls were just as clever as they were bella and none more so than the youngest, whose name was Beauty.

Disappear to faraway lands of wicked witches, evil monsters and brave heroines in former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's stunning collection of fairy tales. Including her beautiful and haunting retellings of the Grimm classics Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and the Pied Piper, as well as other tales from around the world, and new stories of her own, this book will make you think again about once upon a time . . .

With ethereal illustrations by Tomislav Tomic, this uncommonly beautiful book is a very special introduction to - or reminder of - many classic fairy tales.

Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow and grew up in Stafford. She won the 1993 Whitbread Award for Poetry and the Forward Prize for best collection for Mean Time. The World's Wife received the E. M. Forster Award in America, whileRapture won the T. S. Eliot Prize 2005. She is currently Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her most recent volumes are New and Collected Poems for Children (2009) and The Bees (2011 - Costa Poetry Award). She was Poet Laureate.