Cranston Author Andrew Warburton Tells New England Fairy Tales

"My interest in fairies came from the stories my parents used to tell me about pixies on our family vacations to Cornwall when I was a child,” recalls Andrew Warburton of visits to the picturesque coastline. When he came to the United States in 2007 from Bristol, England for graduate school, he noticed a lack of lore, but knew that legends must exist so he sought to uncover these stories.

In his book New England Fairies: A History of the Little People of the Hills and Forests, Warburton presents tales about fairies from the six New England states, going back 400 years. In the section on Rhode Island, these legends stem primarily from Irish and Native American culture. In Harrisville, for example, Irish-American Ellen Carson claims to have had a frightening encounter on the old mill bridge that crosses Clear River with a banshee, a type of floating fairy who wails for the dead, identified by a white gown and striking long white hair.
Similarly, he investigates legends surrounding the Little People of Matunuck Hills, a long-held oral tradition of the Narragansett Tribe.

A resident of Cranston since 2022, Warburton’s research began partly because of a longing for connection back to his homeland. He missed the charm of these tales and decided to dig for similar experiences here. He also credits favorite fantasy authors from childhood like J.R.R. Tolkien and others for inspiration, saying, “I read about elves and fairies in fiction but I never realized that many of those ideas were based on folklore.”

The book has been well-received, particularly among those raised with the folklore of fairies. “I love meeting people at readings who tell me about the stories that have been handed down to them. There is always at least one person who fully believes, and I enjoy hearing that. They have such strong links to these myths,” says Warburton. While he believes in these stories as cultural traditions, he wishes he could say he was a believer in fairies. “I kind of wish that I was there with them, that I really believe in fairies. I’ve been to all of the places where they live, but I’ve never seen one.”

Warburton hopes the book will bring some of the enchantment from the UK over to his new homeland. “I wanted to point out where the fairy legends lie in New England with the hope that people will use their imagination to get out and explore. It’s important to have that sense of magic in our surroundings.” Currently, Warburton is working on a book about fairies of the Empire State, investigating the folklore buried deep within the culture of the upper West Side, Brooklyn, and Queens. But those are tales for another time (New York Fairies, July 8). Learn more at FairiesOfNewEngland.com.