Sherlock Holmes is thought for approaching all mysteries with cool logic – and but when his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle noticed images taken by two younger ladies purporting to point out actual life fairies at play… he unwisely declared them real.
How did Elsie and Frances idiot so many individuals with their pictures… and why did they maintain the hoax going for many years?
Cautionary Tales is written by me, Tim Harford, with Andrew Wright. It’s produced by Ryan Dilley, with assist from Courtney Guarino and Emily Vaughn.
The sound design and unique music is the work of Pascal Wyse. Julia Barton edited the scripts.
Due to the workforce at Pushkin Industries, together with Mia Lobel, Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fain, Jon Schnaars, Carly Migliori, Eric Sandler, Emily Rostek, Royston Beserve, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morana, Daniella Lakhan and Maya Koenig.
Additional studying and listening
The definitive supply is Geoffrey Crawley’s 10-part sequence “That Astonishing Affair of the Cottingley Fairies”, printed within the British Journal of Pictures 1981-82
Different sources embrace Russell Miller, The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle; Frances Griffiths, Reflections on the Cottingley Fairies; and Peter Lamont and Richard Wiseman Magic In Idea.
Harvey Sacks “Everybody Has To Lie,” was printed in in B. Blount and M. Sanches (eds.) Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Use, Educational Press, New York, NY, pp. 57–80 and usefully summarised in Shankar Vedantam and Invoice Mesler Helpful Delusions.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s personal account is in The Coming of the Fairies.
