Solution to The Last Fairy 1983 Armchair Treasure Hunt by F.E. Hancock

The Last Fairy armchair treasure hunt book was published in 1983 by Fantasy Publications, Isle of Man, UK. The book was written by Fred Hancock, who had been inspired by his own search for the Golden Hare in the 1979 armchair treasure hunt of Masquerade by Kit Williams.

Hancock, instead of hiding one treasure, actually hid two. Concealed within the text and images of The Last Fairy were clues, which once understood, would lead searchers to the locations of the buried treasures.  One was buried in the UK. The other in the USA.

The treasures were a 18k gold Fairy and Wand.

The Golden Wand was discovered first in October of 1993.  Clues led two couples from Wiltshire, England, who had worked on the puzzle book over the years, to ‘Royal Tunbridge Wells’ in the UK.

This solution was found by things being highlighted in the images and forming a phrase to reveal the hidden location.

In the first illustration was a golden crown held in a bird’s mouth.  This was to give ‘Royal’. 

The next image had a golden wand setting on a table beneath a window pointing to a wooden barrel by the door. This was to give ‘Tun’. 

In the third illustration was seen a ‘Bridge’ through the perspective of looking out a knot-hole of a tree.

And the final clue given for the location was ‘Wells’, which was found in the fourth illustration.  A bucket for a Well was seen a bit out of place in the image. There wasn’t any indication a well existed for the bucket to be there.

Placing each of the words of the pages together took the couple to the park in Royal Tunbridge Wells. The gold wand, with further clues to discover the gold fairy, was discovered buried there.

From other clues, in both book and now from the newfound treasure, the couples felt the Gold Fairy was hidden at Niagara Falls in the USA.  A buffalo in one of the images hinted to Buffalo New York (location of Niagara Falls), and a horseshoe hinted to the largest of the waterfalls there.  In the text was also written ‘Teardrops fell all over Devonia’s limp form and splashed everywhere.’  This supported the ‘waterfall’ clues.

The poem at the end of the book, and other text helped the couple narrow down the locations.

The group traveled to the US in 1994 and were successful in digging up the Gold Fairy. They now had found both hidden treasures ten years after the release of the hunt.  X marks the spot – I guess in time too.

It is an interesting solution method.

Congrats to the winners.