The Curse of the Cottingley Fairies: How a professor’s life was…

The infamous Curse of the Cottingley Fairies is being blamed for the death of a kindly professor whose life and reputation were shattered by a cruel hoax. This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest scams of the 20th century perpetuated by cousins Frances Griffiths, nine, and Elsie Wright, 16. They fooled the whole world with five photographs they claimed were "living fairies " taken between 1917 and 1920 - said to have been spotted while they played near the village stream at Cottingley in West Yorkshire.