ENTERTAINMENT REALM

The Faerie Handbook by Carolyn Turgeon and the editors of Faerie Magazine. Harper Design| November 2017| 240 pages | $35.00| ISBN: 9780062668110

RATING: ****/5*

“The Faerie Handbook is for all those fairy lovers who want a delicious escape, who see that old-world oak with its moss-grown trunk, who love to read poetry and sip herbal tea on a fainting couch on a rainy afternoon in front of a fire, or walk in long dresses over dewy lawns, feeling the wet grass on their feet and watching the light break over the landscape.”

This striking and elaborate book might be the perfect gift for that fairy enthusiast you know. Popular fairy characters include Tinker Bell (Peter Pan), Galadriel (The Hobbit), Glinda the Good Witch (The Wizard of Oz) and Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood). The Faerie Handbook is divided into four parts: Flora & Fauna; Fashion & Beauty; Art & Culture; and Home, Food & Entertaining.  In Flora & Fauna, there’s a list of fairy world inhabitants with descriptions of dwarves [“Dwarves were a powerful people who would be appalled to know they’ve been named for their allergies, shyness, unpleasant demeanor, or lack of intelligence.”], gnomes, pixies, leprechauns and others. There’s a section on herbs and flowers. On clover: “Fairies are attracted to clover, so if you come across a field of it, be on the watch for a fluttering of wings.” On wild thyme: “A patch of thyme was traditionally set aside in herb gardens for the fairies to live in, somewhat like birdhouses are placed in the garden today.” In Fashion & Beauty, there’s details about shoes, clothes, fragrances, bathing and more. In Art & Culture section there’s a part about Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream— “While Shakespeare drew from multiple sources for the play, mainly folk beliefs and medieval romance, most of the main plot was wholly imagined, which was unusual for him. And his romantic, diminutive fairies almost immediately became a convention of literature.” There are also sections on Victorian fairy painting, changelings and the Cottingley fairy hoax. In Home, Food, & Entertaining, you’ll find recipes for flower lollipops, lavender shortbread cookies, honey ricotta tart, frosted cranberries and fairy teacakes. There are sections on edible flowers, fairy drinks, hosting fairy-themed parties. There’s a section on artist and author Tasha Tudor— “Although the main subject of the books she wrote were her dolls and her beloved pet corgi dogs (regarded in Welsh folklore as a gift of woodland fairies, with markings on their flanks from fairy saddles), the curious blending of the natural and supernatural worlds in her life seeped into her writing and illustrations.” DIY throughout the handbook with instructions on crafting fairy furniture, flower pressing, making a fairy terrarium, making a fairy flower crown, making fairy dust and creating an arbor.

The Faerie Handbook includes four-color photographs and illustrations, silver foil patterning on full book cover, silver foil book edges and a satin bookmark.

Faerie Magazine is a quarterly magazine with a readership of 28, 000 and nearly 2 million followers on Facebook.

Carolyn Turgeon is editor-in-chief of Faerie Magazine. She’s the author of five books: Rain Village; Godmother; Mermaid; The Next Full Moon; and The Fairest of Them All.

–review by Amy Steele

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Harper Collins.