"Bookfairies are beings who strip secondhand bookshops of the most obvious fruit which they then attempt to sell to other locusts who swarm at bookfairs. The good news is that they invariably fail, the bad news is that it does not stop them breeding. Bookfairs are like the froth on a glass of beer. It is the most obvious feature and the first part that most people take any notice of, but it contains very little real liquidity and is only sustained by the action underneath - that is in secondhand bookshops. And like locusts it is not so much the actual creatures as the number of them that is detrimental."