Cottingley is the
new novella by Alison Littlewood and is the second in a new series of four
being published by NewCon Press. The book uses as its backdrop the events of
1917-1920 in which photographs purporting to be of real fairies were taken by
two young girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, which gained a deal of
notoriety when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used them in an article for the Strand Magazine,
regarding them as genuine and proof of the existence of the creatures.
The novella is set in 1921, when interest in the photographs
was beginning to wane and is written in epistolary style, consisting of a
series of letters from Lawrence Fairclough, an elderly widower who lives in the
village of Cottingley and who, if he is to believed, has uncovered new –
physical – evidence of the fairies.
Other than the first letter which is addressed to Conan
Doyle himself, the remainder are written to Edward L Gardner, a prominent
member of the Theosophical Society and another true believer in the veracity of
the photographs. Fairclough has discovered the body of a fairy, and has his own
photographs…
The fairies Fairclough describes are far from benign,
indeed, physical harm is done to both his daughter Charlotte and granddaughter
Harriet by the creatures. These are the fairies of ancient folklore, malevolent
and dangerous.
As the novella progresses, the letters document a change in
Fairclough as his obsession with the fairies grows. The replies he receives are
not shown but the writing here is so skilful that they don’t have to be – the distancing
of Gardner from Fairclough is all too apparent from the increasingly frustrated
tone of the letters the widower constantly sends.
The use of letters as the narrative voice in Cottingley is an inspired one, providing
insights into the character and personality of their author. Fairclough’s
initial excitement at his discovery gradually turns to frustration and hubris,
his own vanity leading to anger and arrogance. It’s all beautifully done, the
changes introduced subtly and carefully. This character study is the real heart
of the book, the fairies and the truth or not of their existence merely the
canvas upon which the portrait is being painted.
This deterioration of course leads to Fairclough becoming
the most unreliable of narrators. There’s much to suggest that his evidence for
the fairies is as genuine as the photographs taken by the girls (who finally
admitted they were fakes in 1983). Reading the letters through this filter
casts a much darker hue on the story, provides a disturbing viewpoint for some
of the incidents he records in his correspondence.
I enjoyed Cottingley very
much indeed, cleverly constructed and written with exactly the right amount of
ambiguity to keep you thinking about it long after you finish it. You can, and
should, buy it here.
