Good Faeries Book

Brian Froud is an artist with a flair for subtly coloured fantasy. Here he revisits the ethereal territory of his art books Faeries (with Alan Lee) and the comic- gruesome Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (with Terry Jones)--the latter a Hugo award winner. Froud has a whole philosophy of faeries and their reality which some readers may find a bit woozily "New Age", though traditional lore and Jungian archetypes are also discussed. Symbolising his sense that "good" and "bad" can shift with viewpoint, this large-format volume consists of Good Faeries and Bad Faeries bound back to back, each upside down relative to the other. The fine artwork offers more variety than you might expect from this subject: traditional faeries, grotesques and comic figures (in both sections), horrors, abstract energy patterns, and crowded, symbolic scenes reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch or Richard Dadd. Just as in Paradise Lost, the bad guys can be more fun--from their hauntingly imagined Queen, through nasties like the Bigot Bogey and spirits of various dark emotions, to such familiar metaphorical nuisances as the Computer Glitch, Small Pang of Regret and Bad Hair Day Faery. Crammed with Froud's full-colour paintings, this is an attractive gift book. --David LangfordRead More