Terry Jones Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book

Annotation

Everyone is familiar with the famous photograph of the small girl surrounded by fairies, which caused such a sensation when it was first published in The Regular magazine in 1907. That little girl was Angelica Cottington. On the death of her father, Lady Cottington lived as a recluse on the family estate until she died in 1991. Three years after her death, a series of unfortunate, and fortunate, accidents brought about the discovery of the very book in which she preserved her pressed fairies. Published in facsimile, the book became one of the most truly intriguing, faithful and epoch-making books of all time. It was an overnight success. Meanwhile, a very sad event occurred. Brian Froud, without permission, surreptitiously removed the original book and a reel of documentary film which purported to show the Lady Cottington in her garden, with the dog, demonstrating how to squash fairies. Froud immediately spotted the fakery: the dog was manipulated by strings! Preparing to return the film he noticed that the book's pages had begun to develop in the daylight and ooze with mould. Incredibly, with the passage of time each page had begun to throw up impressions of so many more unceremoniously flattened fairies, attacked by Lady C in old age - actually the truth being that the old dear had mostly missed and thus the pages reveal bits of fairy and the odd old one. Froud, disgusted, guilty, and not a little frightened, posted the book back immediately. The Cottington archivist opened the parcel and rushed, breathlessly, to the publisher once more.