Seeing Fairies
From the Lost Archives of the Fairy Investigation Society, Authentic Reports of Fairies in Modern Times

by Marjorie T. Jonhson

Trade Paperback, 388 Pages

$22.95, ISBN: 9781938398261

Genre(s): Paranormal Fortean Psychic Abilities

THIS IS NOT A CHILDREN’S BOOK.

Its accounts of fairy experiences, mostly from the twentieth century, have come from business men and women, housewives, journalists, clergymen, bus drivers, anglers, gypsies, school teachers, university professors, soldiers, artists, authors, poets, musicians, sculptors, actresses, and many others who have seen fairies of various types in houses, churches, and sheds; in gardens, fields, woods, country lanes, and public parks; on moors, hills, and mountains; and even on sewing machines, typewriters, and kitchen stoves.

In 1950 Marjorie T. Johnson became Honorary Secretary of a resurrected Fairy Investigation Society, which had been founded by Capt. Quentin C. A. Craufurd, and she collected accounts of fairies and also angelic beings from many of the members.

In 1955 the Scottish author and folklorist Alasdair Alpin MacGregor collaborated with her in sending letters to the national press asking for further true experiences, and many more were received.

The result is this book, published here in English for the first time. Marjorie Johnson’s only request was that readers peruse the book with an open mind.

Now avilable in a laminated hardback edition for a limited time only:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Catch the backstory on this unique book in this Nottingham Post story: Recognition at last for woman who saw fairies

Read: An Interview with historian Simon Young on Seeing Fairies

“THIS BOOK IS SPECIAL because it brings together an unprecedented number of fairy sightings…There are here about four hundred sightings from around the world. In short, this is the biggest single collection of fairy experiences ever amassed…Whether fairies are out there (author points to wood, hedgerow, and waterfall) or in there (author points to balding head of middle-aged ‘witness’) then they need to be explained. Marjorie gave us, in these pages, the tools to do just that.”

                                              — from the Introduction by Dr. Simon Young

Introduction by Simon Young

Foreword by Capt. Sir Quentin C.A. Craufurd 

Introduction by Marjorie T. Johnson

Chapter 1: Nature Spirits in Gardens and the Countryside

Chapter 2: The Case of the Green Wood Elves

Chapter 3: Water Fairies, Fire Fairies, Tree Spirits, and Banshees

Chapter 4: Fairies in Houses, Fairy Glamour

Chapter 5: More Fairy Experiences

Chapter 6: Fairies of Iona, Fairies Seen by Gypsies

Chapter 7: The John O’London’s Weekly Letters

Chapter 8: The Gnomes of Wollaton Park, Fairies as Imitators 

Chapter 9: Animals and Fairies, and Fairies Enlisting the Help of Human Beings

Chapter 10: Transportation of Objects by the Fairies and Fairy Apports

Chapter 11: The Vesting of Psychic Power, Fairy Playmates, and Fairy Photographs

Chapter 12: A Fairy Sanctuary

Chapter 13: Mediums and Fairies, and Fairies in Dreams

Chapter 14: Fairies’ Attachment to Certain Objects

Chapter 15: Fairy Music, and Fairies Dancing to Our Music 

Chapter 16: Angels and Angel Music 

Chapter 17: Group Spirits

Chapter 17: Epilogue

What they're saying:

“This book truly does open a great many new and exciting doors into fairy research, with hundreds of previously unpublished fairy sightings just waiting to be further researched, and new fairy locations just waiting to be visited. An essential read for all dedicated fairy folklorists!” — The Fairy Folklorist

“I think this is the most wonderful book published so far this year.” — Theo Paijmans

"Reading these strange accounts one after another is a disturbing experience. They give the impression that the countryside is heavily populated with little people who live alongside us but are never seen by most of us. Can this really be true? Common sense tells us that it isn’t, and that there must be some other explanation. How can we find out what it is? ...the true value of Marjorie’s efforts in collecting these reports is that we now have the raw material for a proper, unbiased, study of fairy sightings, and it is to be hoped that someone with the knowledge and ability to tease out all the clues can come up with a plausible explanation. Wherever the truth is to be found, this book is essential reading for anyone with the slightest interest in fairies and the Little People." — Janet Bord, Magonia

"It is rare that we can announce the coming of the fairies. But here they are, some thousands of fairy folk, in over 400 reports from around the world...This unique assemblage of fairy sightings is essential reading for forteans, folklorists, fairyists, and, in fact, anyone who researches the unusual or the psychology of those who report the anomalous...Whatever we call them, and whatever guise they wear, it is fascinating to see the points at which the worlds of the fairies and other supernatural entities intersect. The reports in Seeing Fairies add to our knowledge of paranormal patterns, which perhaps may, someday, solve the mystery of fairy sightings." — Chris Woodyard, Haunted Ohio

“I've recently come across a very engaging book—an anthology of four hundred or so individual memorates, first-hand accounts of encounters with the traditional anomalous entities of Western, primarily British folklore--collected by the late Marjorie T. Johnson and only recently published. It comes with both a warm and informative introduction…Marjorie T. Johnson's book as well as Chinese- language memorates on modern sightings of inexplicable beings reminds us that a worldwide phenomenon is still ongoing, still puzzling and perplexing all who come face-to-face with it; that it may be part and parcel of the human experience and does not discriminate according to geography and ethnicity; that it might be something innate within humans or that it could be symptomatic about all that which Jacques Vallee has written about since his Passport to Magonia, the shaping, conditioning of human society for a purpose which is currently beyond our ken…Seeing Fairies is a boon to the scholarship on folklore. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in psychology, anthropology and parapsychology.” — Fred Lobb, Chinese Folktales

"Seeing Fairies is a genuine curiosity of a book."  —Jerome Clark, Fate

“Johnson’s catalogue of purported fairy phenomenon…would easily rank alongside any serious ethnographic study, and accurately documents a serious—if not strange—set of folk beliefs among the inhabitants of the British Isles that persists even today.”  — Micah Hanks, Mysterious Universe