The 'fairy door' phenomenon
Mel Bezalel
Friday June 23, 2006
The Guardian
For many, they are merely a passing flight of fancy, flittering about the childhood imagination and dissolving on impact into sceptical adulthood. Who in their right mind believes in fairies? Well, for fairy researcher Jonathan Wright, a 46-year-old storyteller and illustrator, and fellow residents of the quaint but quirky Michigan town of Ann Arbor (all of whom are in full control of their mental faculties), fairies are as real as the tiny doors that have been mysteriously popping up around town - numbering at least 20 to date.
The inside of a coffee shop; under a toy shop window; even inside Wright's own home - they are all locations of "urban fairy" dwellings. Wright says he first discovered one of the six-inch doors under his staircase in 1993. His daughter uncovered another, which opened onto a room with its own miniature fireplace. Their fame is spreading far and wide - even the Washington Post has covered their arrival. But whose handiwork is behind them? There are no eyewitness reports of anyone - man, woman or fairy - erecting the doors.
Wright, though, claims to have the answer. He says that urbanisation caused the displacement of woodland, forest and flower fairies. While house hunting, the winged ones came across Ann Arbor, an eccentric locality that celebrates the liberation of cannabis at its annual Hash Dash. These bohemian urban dwellers have welcomed the teeny fairy community, Wright says, with many locals enquiring how they can get a fairy door of their own (indeed, this is the most frequently asked question according to Wright's website -
www.urban-fairies.com
A few Ann Arbor establishments, such as Sweetwaters cafe, have introduced guest books for the public to ask questions and write messages to the elusive fairies. It is uncertain whether the fairies reply to all enquiries, although Wright claims they have managed to secure an email address (
[email protected]). One child wrote, "Dear fairies, I am so happy that you came to Ann Arbor. I hope you come live at my dad's office."
Sceptics may dismiss him as being "away with the fairies," but Wright asserts that he does not wish to impose his beliefs - he is merely sharing them. He laments "those who do not believe in imagination.
"There are people and companies that make and sell 'fairy doors'," he says. "I could do the same. But that takes the fun out of finding them."
