§33

‘In the 1970s I used to stay (as a five year old) in a small four- or five-hundred-year-old cottage with a small bamboo thicket and a stream running down. It was on a quite steep hill, just outside ***, so the stream was stepped with natural and manmade stoneways. I used to go down there every morning and there would be a treat for me in the grotto. I knew this was my grandparents pretending to be the fairies but on the last day I insisted in going to say goodbye to the fairies. The image of the creature was so clear I remember thinking I must have left a Sindy (British version of Barbie) doll down there but when I got down there there was no lost Sindy. Being a child who thought nothing of seeing a fairy (my nana was a bit of a reading-the-fire mystic type) I told everyone, only stopping when I realised people thought I was making it up for attention, but I remain convinced to this day that what I saw was a fairy.’ ‘Like a Sindy doll with clothes that looked to be made from natural things like leaves. It was the same size as the doll but thinner, more ethereal.’ ‘I was told [the area had fairies] but thought that this was my nana being nice.’ ‘Personally I think it was a water sprite but my friend says that is what they are tree spirits, water spirits, lea [?] spirits.’ ‘[Fairies are] spirits of nature.’