When Mr Tipkins, a gift-giver from the Department of Wishes of Faerie, arrives to give a wish to a newborn baby in the village of Widdershins, he isn't in the best of moods. His uncharacteristic burst of bad temper begins a chain reaction that has consequences no one can foresee. The Truth about Magic is a story of mistakes and of deception, of wizards (good and bad), and of what happens when perfectly ordinary wishes go wrong.