Book Review: The Faerie Handbook

It is a very special day for faeries everywhere! The Faerie Handbook is released today – which means a very happy book birthday to one of the most magical books released this season. The Faerie Handbook: An Enchanting Compendium of Literature, Lore, Art, Recipes, and Projects by The Editors of Faerie Magazine, is an exquisite anthology that will fill your life with magic. Whether you are a faerie (I am part faerie, myself) or simply want to identify if that glimmer you saw in the air was indeed fairy dust, this beautiful lavender hardcover with silver detailing is a sight to behold.

The collected artwork alone in this volume is something I will treasure for the rest of my life. My all-time favorites are represented: Brian Froud, Alan Lee, Arthur Rackham, Charles Vess, and John William Waterhouse to name a few. And of course the photography by Kirsty Mitchell and Katerina Plotnikova is not to be missed. Literally every single page is something to pause for and savor… even the end pages!

Prepare to be charmed by the display of tiny fairy houses (and inspiration for crafting your own fairy furniture), little fairy shoes made out of flower petals, a fairy tea party, and recipes for your own fairy party (candied violets, flower lollipops, and lavender shortbread cookies anyone?). You may also use this as a guidebook of sorts, with such tips as how to avoid being taken by the fairies, how to know if you’re a fairy girl (I think I said yes to all 40+ questions), and how to identify key fairy world inhabitants.

This anthology is organized into four sections—Flora and Fauna, Fashion and Beauty, Arts and Culture, and Home, Food, and Entertaining. Between the fine art and photography, essays, DIY projects, and recipes there are so many dreamy pages to be inspired by. The inset oval image on the front cover is a perfect choice, and one I immediately recognized from Kirsty Mitchell’s Wonderland (an enchanting tome of fantasy photography of which I proudly own the 1st edition). I cannot stop admiring the details of this book: ornate silver foil patterns on the cover, spine, and back, silver stained edges, and a violet satin bookmark.

It’s books like this that inspire me to head out into the forest in my faerie cloak, even despite the frigid weather. Okay, frigid doesn’t come close, let’s be real, it was COLD that day (as in below freezing frosty-moss weather). But the fair folk are creatures of many layers, and so I donned mine and set out to find a quiet glen where the trees are beginning to settle down into their winter slumber. Blankets of moss quieted my steps where the roots are tucked in for a long a nap. I felt the presence of winter faeries about, preparing their nests in the nooks and hollows.

Consider me enchanted! Though I did not expect anything less. I’ve been subscribed to the quarterly Faerie Magazine since Spring 2014 and I eagerly look forward to them each season. After I read an issue from cover-to-cover and taken in all the beauty, I house it on a special shelf where I am collecting all the issues I’ve ever received. I am delighted to have The Faerie Handbook now in my collection beside them. A big thank you to Harper Design Team and Carolyn Turgeon, Editor-in-Chief of Faerie Magazine, for sending me a copy!

xo – Naomi