{"product_id":"flowerfairies","title":"PREORDER ~ The Complete Book of Flower Fairies ~ Cicely Mary Barker","description":"\u003cp\u003ePREORDER ~ The Complete Book of Flower Fairies ~ Cicely Mary Barker\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eArriving early November, please preorder now to secure your copy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA beautiful book for anyone who loves flowers, gardens, fairies, poetry, nature and a little bit of magic.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI absolutely adore this book. It is the kind of book you can pick up simply to wander through its pages, pausing over the exquisite botanical illustrations, whimsical little fairies and charming poems. It feels like stepping into a secret garden where every flower has a personality and every leaf might be hiding a tiny winged creature.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Complete Book of the Flower Fairies brings together the much-loved poems and illustrations from Cicely Mary Barker’s classic Flower Fairies books, originally published from 1923 onwards. It includes the flowers and plants she so beautifully brought to life, along with their fairies, poems and a selection of fairy rhymes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat makes Barker’s work particularly special is the extraordinary care she took to get the natural world right.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCicely Mary Barker was determined that her flowers should be botanically accurate. She carefully studied real plants and worked with the botanists at Kew Gardens to ensure that the flowers she painted were true to life, down to their individual characteristics and details. Her fairies may have belonged to an enchanted world, but the plants beneath their tiny feet were very much real.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd the little faces of the fairies were real too.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBarker’s sister ran a kindergarten, and Cicely would sketch the children there, using their innocent expressions and natural poses as inspiration for her fairies. This is part of what gives them such a wonderfully unselfconscious quality. They don't look like polished, grown-up versions of fairies. They look like real children who have wandered barefoot into the garden and somehow grown wings.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBorn in 1895 in Croydon, England, Barker was largely educated at home because of ill health and taught herself to draw and paint from an early age. Remarkably, she had her first artwork published when she was just sixteen. Inspired by nature and by the Pre-Raphaelite artists she admired, she devoted her life to painting, eventually creating the Flower Fairies that would become her most beloved work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNearly a century after the first Flower Fairy book appeared, her delicate illustrations still have a wonderful ability to make us look more closely at the plants growing around us.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA truly enchanting addition to a garden lover's bookshelf, a beautiful gift for anyone who loves flowers, fairies, poetry or botanical illustration, and a book to treasure whether you're eight or eighty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA little piece of botanical magic to dip into again and again.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePair it with my Grassroots Herbalism guide or Herbal Astrology Oracle for a beautiful botanical-inspired collection celebrating plants, folklore, herbal wisdom and the magic of the natural world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wild Botanica","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67674517799063,"sku":null,"price":49.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0493\/8946\/9847\/files\/1.TheCompleteBookofFlowerFairiesCover.jpg?v=1790551035","url":"https:\/\/www.wildbotanica.co.nz\/products\/flowerfairies","provider":"Wild Botanica ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}