Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book

This perennial bestseller never loses its charm. It really happened-a hoax perpetrated by two girls who claimed to have photographed actual “fairies”; among the people caught up in the popular hysteria were Arthur Conan Doyle (who fell for it) and Harry Houdini (who did not). This remarkable parody, written by a former member of the Monty Python troupe, takes a riotously witty, visually extraordinary, and wildly original look at what went on. In every respect, this “handwritten diary” captures the look of the age-though the fairies, it is true, do sometimes have a more malevolent aspect than one might expect…A fresh-and funny-take on the true story that inspired two movies.