On the (Book) Map: The Cottingley Affair

Submitted: 18th March 2026

The Cottingley Affair

Cottingley refers a small village near Bradford, Yorkshire, known for the Cottingley Fairies – a series of photographs taken by cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in the 1910s.

These photos were shown around the world and were said to be real photographic evidence of real fairies. You can imagine the global interest in such a story but also the scepticism. How could someone have taken pictures of creatures not of this world, that were only supposed to exist in fairytales?

Author Arthur Conan Doyle was involved in thinking the photos were real which brought a new dimension to the whole mystery.

A novel that looks into this story is the rather brilliant and magical one by Hazel Gaynor

The Cottingley Secret

The controversy:

In 1917, cousins Elsie (16) and Frances (9) took photos of fairies in their garden in Cottingley, near Bingley. They swore they were real and that they had managed to take photos of fairy folk at the bottom of their garden. They said the fairies seemed friendly but distant and scared. This was in the day when photography was in its infancy and so for a camera to take such images was considered a miracle…

fairies

Arthur Conan Doyle

The pictures came to the attention of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. At the time, he was at the height of his popularity and so people believed him and thought the fairies must be real if this great man believed in them. He even went so far as to illustrate an article on fairy folk he had been asked to write for the Strand Magazine that year. A prestigious magazine, which only went to strengthen the story.

It was as if Sherlock Holmes himself believed in all this and so you can imagine how it caught the imagination of so many. He was into supernatural phenomena and saw the photos as a clear sign it existed.

hazel-gaynor

This reimagination of the story behind the story

Author Hazel Gaynor says:

“Like the very best fairy tales, the story of the Cottingley fairies endures and changes a little in each retelling. With 2017 marking the centenary of the first two photographs, I am sure a new generation will now discover these iconic images for the first time, and I hope that in writing The Cottingley Secret, I have contributed my own piece of history to this particular fairytale.”

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