Barker trained at the Croydon School of Art starting at age 13 and began her professional career drawing and painting for greeting cards and children's magazines. Her fairies are shown perched on branches, balancing on falling seeds, and playfully swinging from fine branches or vines, which gives them a truely childlike and carefree attitude that is absent in some of the more staid garden poses.First published in 1923, 'Flower Fairies of the Spring' is the first in a series of 'Flower Fairy' books by English illustrator and author, Cicely Mary Barker. Besides Barker's excellent grasp of illustrating her trees, the settings for these fairies gave her a lot of room to play with for innovative poses. The sweet chestnut fairy was a particular favourite because of his ridiculous spiky hat - English chestnuts must be of a different variety than the ones I'm used to seeing, because ours aren't edible and their spiky shells are even more so. Lots of the trees in this collection were obviously chosen because they were of the flowering variety (fruit trees in abundance), but I honestly found the non-flowering trees to be a nice change. Also available from Penguin is The Everyday Handbook for Magical Mothers as presented by the Flower Fairies - a handy, pocket-sized book of craft ideas and recipes for mothers who need a touch of magic in their lives.Īnother fantastic collection of flower fairies from Cicely Mary Barker, even though many of the flowers weren't strictly related to flowers. The seven other titles in the Flower Fairies series, Flower Fairies of the Spring, Flower Fairies of the Summer, Flower Fairies of the Autumn, Flower Fairies of the Winter, Flower Fairies of the Wayside, Flower Fairies of the Garden and A Flower Fairy Alphabet, are available as single editions or as part of The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies. Favourites to be found in Flower Fairies of the Trees include: The Cherry Tree Fairy, The Almond Blossom Fairy and The Mulberry Tree Fairy. Flower Fairies of the Trees celebrates and introduces children to the flowers and fruits that grow on trees by making them magical. In a format that has enchanted readers for 90 years, each of Cicely Mary Barker's beautiful illustrations of the fairies of wild and familiar flowers is accompanied by a delightful poem. With fresh new title pages and endpapers, reset text and printed on a fine quality paper, these new editions make a charming gift for all Flower Fairy enthusiasts. Inspiration has been drawn from the original publishers' connections with The Glasgow School of Art to produce an exquisite new cover. For the first time in over 10 years all eight Original Flower Fairies Books are being re-designed.

Flower fairies of the spring book