An amusing quote: "Ah! Je borsten zijn witter dan een blanco cheque!"which no doubt reads as "Ah! Your breasts are whiter than a blank cheque!"in the original. I had been shown a copy of this book over ten years ago. I thought it was hysterical. The squashed fairies by Brian Froud were a hoot, and the narration by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame was amusing, getting a bit racy as the time passed along with the entries. So it isn't a small children's book due to some of the mature subject matter. (It isn't lurid by most standards though. There is a bit of nudity as well, as is common in fairy illustrations intended for a more mature audience.) This, however, is a translation of the first book, with text by Terry Jones and artwork by Brian Froud.

I looove the look of this book! It looks worn out a bit and it feels lovely. I also enjoyed the illustrations done by Brian Froud. If you don't know who he is, he worked on some creatures for Jim Henson's Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. I love those movies, especially Labyrinth! Oh, Jareth, how I love you!!! Although I am a fan of Terry Jones's work, I didn't like this book as much as I did the second. It is funny, but the squashing of fairies got a bit old and the book ended rather abruptly. In Lady Cottington's Fairy Album, Brian Froud managed to add some real depth and poignancy to the story. Plus there were photographs!It's kind of making me sad thinking about it now, and I'm glad this wasn't around when I was a kid. I would have taken the whole thing as a personal affront and refused to ever watch Monty Python again because Terry Jones would have been DEAD TO ME. I just today remembered that this book existed. I read the whole thing standing in a used book store one afternoon shortly after it came out, and was more than a little disgusted by it. Ok, I'm getting way off topic here. Where was I. Oh, yeah, Brian Froud. I love his fairies and goblins creatures. Personally, I love Terry Jones's strange yet very creative story and Brian Froud's magical artwork in this book. Terry Jones has always been one of my favorites in the “Python” gang of movies and the old BBC shows of “Monty Python & the Flying Circus” and Froud's gorgeous watercolor artwork is enchanting…even if the fairies all met an untimely squashing by a naughty little girl. Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book" is full of the former Python's quirky story of what else...pressed fairies...the poor dears. Squished at the prime of their tiny lives to create a scrapbook/diary for one, Miss Cottington. Actually, I believe there were some other odd little characters smooshed in the book, too...kind of green, slimy looking creatures...cute critters actually...:>

One of the things I love is how Angelica's age is captured. When she's younger the writing style reflects that and I didn't realise how twisted her action of squashing the fairies was quite till the end. But she grows up and she maintains this naivety of people who don't want to get any older. The first book, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, I'm quite sure was meant nothing more than a bit of humor. We follow the adventures of Lady Cottington as a small girl as she begins to notice the fairies around her and as she discovers the pressing technique to preserve them in her books. In Lady Cottington's Fairy Album we learn a little more of Lady Cottington's heritage, and this is where I think the series, while still deep in it's whimsical foundations, takes a turn for the more "serious." With Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters, we are presented with letters from the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rasputin, Houdini, Helen Keller and more, as Lady Cottington continues her journey of discovery.I wanted to love this book, but the thought of smushing faeries, even if it's just to capture their essences (which really sounds dirty now that I think about it) put a bad taste in my mouth (which furthers that dirtiness earlier in the sentence, I guess). By the way, in case you're planning to read this in public or would like to gift this to a child and are sensitive about this kind of stuff, the fairies in the watercolors are mostly nude and in include the occasional fully-exposed rear-end or breast. What started out as what I assume to be a bit of comic relief, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, and its subsequent volumes, turned into something of its own fairy tale. Through each volume, we gain a little more insight into the world of Angelica Cottington, who masters the art of pressing fairies in her books, to preserve them and show the world the truth. I give each book 4 stars, but really, the second book is what brings the three volumes together as something more than whimsy. Without spoiling too much, this is a photo album/diary written by two sisters. The older one began taking pictures of "fairies", which she also wrote about, but unfortunately died shortly after finishing the diary. Her younger sister finds the diary and begins reading it, adding notes of her own, and squishing fairies while she's in the process. It sounds very dull and tidy that way but the ending is quite interesting! CAVEAT: The fairies pictured in this book are caught in poses of agony, and frequently nude too. Should not be viewed by impressionable children under age 34.