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‘This happened when I was seven or eight years old. It took me a while to remember this memory, but when it did all of my strange feelings and uneasiness about faeries suddenly made sense. I was given a book about faeries for my birthday. It was a little book, with a ‘faerie wand’ and ‘faerie dust’. Needless to say, I was obsessed with my new present. I was even more ecstatic when a few weeks later, the faerie circle appeared in my garden. A whole ring of small, white mushrooms popped out of the grass, seemingly overnight. The timing was uncanny, and somehow I knew the faeries had brought it here to me. I was absolutely over the moon. I never felt so lucky in all of my little life. I wanted to make a good first impression, so I read in my book. There was a little song you could sing and walk around the faerie circle to get the faeries to come out and play. So, I began to sing the song in my book… I tried, I tried, over and over again. I sang this song, hoping that at any moment a fairy would appear and make all of my dreams come true. My poor neighbours! But just as expected no faeries arrived. I was quite disappointed, but I kept on trying, thinking that maybe it wasn’t the right day for them to come out, or perhaps it wasn’t the right time of day. And so I kept trying, but nothing. Now, I should mention that I have a twin brother, a twin brother, who made a habit of messing with me at every opportunity he could. (Don’t worry, he is a very nice person, but he was very naughty when he was a child.) He thought it was a fun game to tease me about things that were very important to me. So when he noticed my fascination and love for that faerie circle, he decided that he would put his foot in it. And he quite literally did. As I was reading my book by the faerie circle, he called out my name, told me to watch what he was going to do, and he began kicking down the mushrooms of the faerie circle. I screamed and cried, and begged him to stop, but he kept kicking them one at a time. I tried to pull him off, but he was too strong for me. I even tried standing in the way of the mushrooms so that he would kick me instead. It was only after a few moments of me crying and screaming that our mother came out, and finally pulled my brother indoors for a time out. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. About two thirds of the faerie circle was completely destroyed. I was distraught. I remember that huge lump in my throat and how it hurt to cry that hard. In my absolute devastation, and not thinking clearly, I thought it be best finish the job that he had done. I kicked the last of the mushrooms down, absolutely hysterical, screaming in frustration as I did. I can still hear my thoughtswhy couldn’t my brother let me have anything nice? After the deed was done, my mother came back to console me and I was carried inside and I stayed indoors for the rest of the day. It must have been some days, perhaps weeks before the event arrived. I was outside in the garden, on my own. I was just playing with my princess and barbie dolls, not even thinking about the faeries or the faerie circle. It was then that I had a funny feeling wash over me. That feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know you’re being watched. As I turned around, three small faeries were hovering just an arm’s width away. My initial reaction was complete shock at what I was seeing, and what these things looked like. They are so cartoonish? It was almost like looking at three living troll dolls (the old versions of them). But their features were more angular, sharper. And their wings were moving so quickly that I couldn’t make out their shape, only that they appeared like bee wings. Their skin was a darker brown, weather-beaten like a farmer’s tan. Their eyes were huge and very dark too. They were all wearing similar outfits; a tall, pointed brown hat like that of a gnome, an open waistcoat, dark brown shorts and shoes that looked like what the dwarves wear in the Disney’s Snow White and the seven dwarves’ film. It looked like they had emerged from the Earth itself, like if you were to dig a potato from the ground and it was stained with dirt. There were not the pretty tiny lady faeries who were dainty, dressed in flower petals and glittery pink sparkles… These three faeries were the complete opposite. My brain cannot fathom that any very good be a male, let alone something dirty and mean looking [sic!]. From left to right, the first faerie was the smallest; stout, round, with a grouchy expression. He looked incredibly angry at me. The second one in the middle was the tallest and thinnest. He had a weary, nervous expression about him. And the third one to the right looked the most in proportion feature wise, he looked at me solemnly, as though he didn’t want to be there. Now, I can’t remember exactly word for word what they said to me, I think I was so in shock that I wasn’t exactly listening anyway. But I remember the first faerie being incredibly enraged with me, shouting at how could I have done such a thing, to destroy a faerie circle? The second one backed up everything he said, although in a much more timid way. This went on for a little while before I explained that my brother had been the one to destroy it and that I did try and stop him. But the first faerie remarked that I have been the one to finish the job, and that my crime was far worse than what my brother did. I began to apologise and say that I was sorry, but my cries fell on deaf ears. The first two faeries didn’t want to hear it. They kept berating me until the third faerie finally spoke up. The third faerie sighed and confronted me about why they were here. He said that they had been told to retrieve me and bring me back to their home to receive my punishment. At that moment, I started crying again, becoming hysterical at the thought of being punished for something that I had done in the heat of the moment, and that I was truly regretful about. When I started crying louder, that’s when the faeries tried to shush me. The third faerie spoke to the other two in a hushed tone which I couldn’t hear because I was trying to stop crying. I don’t know why but I have the feeling it was something about fate? Or something about there was no reason to punish me? I don’t remember. When they finished speaking to one another, the third faerie told me that they weren’t going to take me back to their home. They weren’t going to punish me. But they would never return and no faerie circle would ever grow in the garden again. After that, they left without me. I can’t recall how they left. If it was through the faeries circle or if they just disappeared. But as soon as they were gone, I screamed for my mother, and ran back towards the house. I tried to explain to her what I had seen. But I knew that I couldn’t describe what had happened. Even I didn’t understand what happened. Years after this event, I had forgotten about it until I discovered Brian Froud’s work in my late teens. When I opened his Good Faeries/Bad Faeries book, I was completely stunned to see the closest images I had seen to my garden faeries. The one with the most striking resemblance is the one in the artwork called ‘The Primrose Faery’. The faery in question is standing on the left of the Primrose Faery. That’s when I remembered and this long-forgotten memory washed over me. (Suddenly and somehow, it made sense to me why they had not punished me. I had a very bad childhood, every stage of my education I was bullied and abused in every way possible: verbally, physically, racially, sexually etc. I don’t believe it was the faeries’ doing, I think they just knew it was going to happen.) Even now, almost twenty years after the event, no mushroom circle has ever grown in my family home’s garden again. But I love the faeries. I still do and I always will. Even when I doubt their existence in my rational mind, that memory hits me and I cannot deny what I saw that day. Who I talked to that day. I have seen a few glimpses of faeries after that, but only for a moment, to the point where I can doubt if I ever saw anything. I’m not afraid of them. There is a balance they have to maintain, a balance we cannot understand. I learnt the hard way to respect them, but I am grateful to them for showing me the delicate balance of nature. I’ve never told anyone about this and I doubt anyone in my family remembers the incident. But I do, and I will hold my faith in the faeries forever.’ ‘I love [fairies] but they are to be absolutely respected.’ ‘I knew instantly it was a faerie, even though it was nothing like I had imagined. It just was.’