Erwin Saunders - Pixie Hunter
My first memory of Pixies is from about 1968-69. I used to live on Queensland Street, Edge Hill. My Nin had moved up to Old Swan the year before, into a fancy* flat in Hurst Gardens. During the school holidays, she used to take me up to her flat on the 40 bus. We’d catch the bus by The Lybro jeans factory at Mount Vernon Green and a couple of minutes later, as we went past Jubilee Drive, the bus would stop next to a row of big houses on Edge Lane. My Nin would point down into the garden of one house and say, “A Pixie lives in that garden!” I would then spend the next couple of minutes while people got on and off the bus, frantically trying to spot the “Pixie”. I never spotted the pixie, but to be honest I never knew what a Pixie looked like. The only thing I did spot was the giant daisy painted on the front of a terraced house on the other side of the road. Years later, when I worked in Edge Hill and most of the big houses had long been demolished, I would get the 40 bus home to Old Swan. I’d look at the giant daisy and remember those pixie spotting journeys. I’m sure the Pixie sighting in Liverpool was a real thing in the 60’s.
Anyway… I remembered that journey because I recently discovered the YouTube channel belonging to Erwin Saunders. Erwin’s channel chronicles his search for Pixies and other mythological creatures that inhabit our ancient woodlands. He also uses it to promote sales of his Lino-cut prints and original illustrations. His assistant ‘Tom’ helps him with the filming. Erwin reminds me of a cross between Bill Oddie, Magnus Pyke, and Jack Hargreaves. (None of those names will mean anything to you if you are under 50 and not from the UK.). He’s a bit of a bumbling professor type with the beard and haircut of a 1970s Open University lecturer.
I can’t stop watching his videos. This is what YouTube channels should be like. Complete escapism from the depressing shite that they bombarded us with every day. Have a look a couple and you’ll be hooked. You might even see a real Pixie.
I don’t care if it’s CGI or if he’s an actor doing a little project in between roles, this is what I need to keep me sane during the pandemic.
I want to believe in Pixies.
*By ‘fancy’ I mean it had an inside toilet, a bathroom, hot water, a gas fire and a veranda. Compared to our little hovel on Queensland Street, it was luxurious.
