StoryGnat #30 - Cicely, Cicily and friends
Yep, the spelling has been a struggle
Hello again, StoryGnatter,
How was the last Spring bank holiday? Enough to see you through until the end of August? Me neither.
This week, we’re diving deep into my childhood imagination. I was convinced I could see fairies in one of the gardens down the road from our house, and adamant that you lost the ability to see them when you turned seven. I can’t see them now, but of course I still fully believe they’re there.
And I’m sure that belief is in no small part due to today’s story.
Cicely Mary Barker and the Flower Fairies
When I was about ten, my dad’s sister gave me the Flower Fairies book she’d had as a child. It’s still one of my most prized possessions.
If you don’t know them, the Flower Fairies are a collection of illustrations and poems written and beauuuuutifully drawn by Cicely Mary Barker. Born in 1895, she’d been kept home from school in her childhood because of epilepsy and other health problems – instead spending a lot of time reading and drawing, encouraged by her dad.
When Barker’s father died, Cicely, her sister Dorothy and their mother needed to make an income. One way Barker contributed was by selling her works – a mix of Flower Fairies and Christian themes.
The plants in the Flower Fairies illustrations are botanically accurate, thanks to a little help from Kew Gardens who she wrote to when she needed to check details. But it’s the fairies themselves that caught my imagination. They’re beautifully detailed and capture a real sense of each child as an individual.
That’s probably because Barker was drawing actual children dressed in costumes she’d made (complete with wings) – often from the kindergarten that her sister Dorothy ran in their house (another income stream). In later life, kindergarten pupil Cicily Ayris recalled modelling as the Strawberry Fairy, aged five, and also as the Herb Twopence Fairy. Her older sister was the model for the Lily of the Valley Fairy. Cicily remembered that Barker never kept them too long, and that she was quite chatty.
Another model, known in particular to have sat as the Primrose Fairy, was the brilliantly-named Gladys Tidy, daughter of the lady who came to clean the Barkers’ home at weekends.
Fancy finding out more?
https://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/blog/who-was-cicely-mary-barker
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/articles/cicely-mary-barker-flower-fairytale-183451
Enough sugar, spice and all things nice? If you need a quick antidote, I have the perfect tale. This one was the inspiration for Game of Thrones’ red wedding episode (IYKYK), which originally aired on 2nd June 2013. How has it been that long already?!
I’m off to enjoy this glorious sunshine, so until next week,
Meg