The Cottingley Fairies

Here's a photograph of a young girl and the fairies at the bottom of her garden, circa 1917. The fairies look real, don't they? Get outta here - your head would have to be well buttoned up the back to go for this. Among those with heads buttoned up the back was the creator of the most admired and revered forensic detective of the 20th or any other century - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle staked his reputation on the authenticity of this photograph and others like it - all taken by two schoolgirls. He threw himself heart and soul into providing absolute proof that the 'little people' existed and the photographs were genuine. As a result, in many circles he became a laughing stock, casually throwing away the enormous reputation gained from the Baker Street chronicles. Even making due allowance for the credulity of a more naive age, it is hard to see how a man of ordinary intelligence, far less the deviser of the great Holmes, could be fooled by such an obvious fake. Click the heading for more information and speculation that Conan-Doyle was right all along and is having the last laugh in fairyland.