Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies books, published in the first half of this century, are known and loved around the world. They were created by a quiet, unassuming and dedicated artist, who was nevertheless remarkably successful, spending her life illustrating many children's books and selling hundreds of watercolours and pastels. Today, almost thirty years after her death, her work continues to offer delights that have stood the test of time.

This collection of her work offers a nostalgic glimpse into the Romantic Age, each illustration suggesting that beyond the natural world so truthfully depicted in her paintings, there might co-exist another, usually invisible, world of the fairies.