The Mystery of the Fool and the Vanisher

About The Mystery of the Fool and the Vanisher

“Beautiful photographs are juxtaposed against subtly quiet text in this unusual fantasy.” — Kirkus Reviews

Some say the English Downs are haunted by fairy creatures — and that those who find a flint stone with a hole through it can look into the fairies’ realm. It is just such a stone that leads photographer David Ellwand on a dark journey to the past, one that starts with a musty wooden chest and a nineteenth-century journal and ends with a disappearance as sudden as a vintage camera’s flash. In this journal-within-a-journal, illustrated by Ellwand’s exquisite photographs, lies a tale of archaeologists and fairies, human hubris and otherworldly revenge, the magic of the natural world and the mystery of the imagination.