By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The story or ‘history’ of Tom Thumb is the oldest English fairy story that we have in printed form. Other fairy tales may well be older – indeed, almost certainly are if we trace the antecedents of stories such as ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ back some 4,000 years – but the oldest extant printed copy of a fairy tale is Richard Johnson’s The History of Tom Thumbe, printed in London in 1621. Only one copy of this original printing is thought to survive.