Flower Fairies of the Autumn

I’ve owned this little book for years, mostly for the lovely illustrations (yes, I am a sucker for botanical fairies). Delighted to realize upon re-reading that the short poems tell you what is edible in the hedgerows, and what birds or butterflies each sustains in the fall, and what to avoid eating, or to use for jam. It’s a whole wealth of gardening and ecological information in a tiny beautiful package. How cool!

Obiously Barker had little choice but to continue on a seasonal theme for her third installment in the flower fairies series, but the Autumn book contains very few actual flowers. Mirroring the season itself, Barker focuses instead on depicting the many plants and trees which produce berries and nuts during the Autumn season. Even though she had moved away from the lighthearted modes of Spring and Summer, her fairies still retain their childlike airs even though their colours have dwindled somewhat. We only have one more season to tackle before Barker moves to collecting fairies in a more esoteric fashion, but we're entering the time where few flowers (if any) truely bloom, so I am curious whether the fairies will truely be of the flowers.

This was a book that was given to me by my sister for our monthly book club. And for such a small book it is a beautiful work both with its simplistic poetry and its beautiful artwork.

The artist introduces you into the world of plants during the autumn season with a detailed yet whimsical picture of the plant with its fairy during that time of the season and a little poem to match. The poem itself isn't just some frivolous words together but simple verses that also contribute to your education of the plant itself.

Love it and will be working to collect the series....

I've been reading these since I was little and recently bought them for the little in my life, we both love fairies. These make the long walks we take in each season so much more enjoyable, we recite the little rhymes and look extra close for the fairies

I love Cicely Mary Barker's exquisite art, but her poems I usually skip.

These are the fairies that appear in Flower Fairies of the Autumn, in alphabetical order:

Acorn Fairy
Beechnut Fairy
Berry Queen (song, but not in the b&w illustration)
Black Bryony Fairy
Blackberry Fairy
(show all 19 items)
Crab-apple Fairy
Dogwood Fairy
Elderberry Fairy
Hawthorn Fairy
Hazel-nut Fairy
Horse Chestnut Fairy
Mountain Ash Fairy
Nightshade Berry Fairy
Privet Fairy
Robin's Pincushion Fairy
Rose Hip Fairy
Sloe Fairy
Wayfaring Tree Fairy
White Bryony Fairy

Wonderful, whimsical world of Cicely Mary Barker.