The Pressed Fairy Controversy

"The [Pressed Fairy] calendars are a daily reminder that we need to laugh much more than we do."
-"Stuck on Fairys!", September 14, 1998

"Not for the squeamish and certainly not for the humorless."
-An Amazon.com reader, January 4, 1997

"Absolutely charming and wonderful!"
-Another Amazon.com reader, October 3, 1998

Read more reviews

As a Froud fan, you probably spend hours flipping through the pages of Froud books. You are on a constant lookout for the various wonderful collections of Froud's work that have been published over the years. You rush off to the bookstore as soon as you hear rumors of his latest release. Maybe you have two, three, or even ten Froud books already on your shelves? Yes, as Froud fans, we all have these things in common, but this, sadly, is in some cases, where the common ground between us ends!

Some months back, I discovered that the Barnes and Nobel bookstore has done a tremendous service to the world by reprinting Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, and Strange Stains & Mysterious Smells. This put many other Froud fans and I into a deep state of joy and gratitude! The books we have been kicking ourselves for missing in years past were finally available without our having to pay $100 or more for dusty old torn copies!

But, just because we were happy didn't mean there weren't other things going on.... For some Froud fans, things weren't that simple.

Yes, while the majority of us were grabbing for esteemed object of our joys, we were innocently supporting the very Evil that so deeply stirred the hearts of the OTHER Froud fans. Unknowingly we had entered into The Pressed Fairy Controversy.

A concerned visitor to this site emailed me the following letter:

Now if you read the introductory pages of the book, it plainly states that the pressed fairy illustrations are merely "psychic impressions of fairies", and "are in no way representative of actual squashed fairy bodies, in any physical sense". It goes on to say that "No fairies were damaged during this process", and furthermore, that the book is "endorsed by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fairies" as being true to that claim. Anyone who has read Lady Cottington's entries however, may be less than entirely sure of that.

So the final question is, are the Pressed Fairy books EVIL and CRUEL, or just plain ridiculously funny? That's for you to decide.

Yes...... what kind of Froud fan are YOU?