In the Forest Fey [Hardcover]

Vanessa-Gaye Schiff (Author), Kerry-Gaye Schiff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007

While photographing a ramshackle cottage deep in the forest, student architect Cathryn Thomlinson stumbles upon a 17th-century manuscript hidden beneath crumbling floorboards. While intrigued by its references to "faeries," Cathryn dismisses it as the ramblings of an old woman—the long-dead Good Dame Kellerman, who claimed to have discovered a faerie realm within the forest. But when Cathryn's film is developed, she's astonished to see exquisite winged creatures glancing mischievously at her from her photos. Thus begins a journey into a spellbinding world of fantasy.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

As children, sisters Vanessa-Gaye and Kerry-Gaye Schiff were intrigued and fascinated by the concept of faeries. This legacy of imagination survived until later in their lives and using their skills in design and writing, they were inspired to create the faeries of the Forest Fey. Kerry-Gaye is a prolific writer of poetry and short stories. Vanessa-Gaye is a successful fine-artist and graphic designer, and produces all the magical images that can be seen in In the Forest Fey. The sisters live in Cape Town, South Africa.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Ebury Press (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0091910730
• ISBN-13: 978-0091910730
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,383,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative and Inspiring!!, May 14, 2007

By 

J. Hudock - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Forest Fey (Hardcover)

The simple but meaningful stories coupled with the exquisite photographic art of these two sisters is both compelling and inspiring. This book is a must-have for those who collect faeries and faerie art. It definitely ranks up there with well-known faerie realm artists such as Brian and Wendy Froud, Charles Vess, Terri Windling and more, but the beauty of this book is that the realism captured by their human subjects. It makes the story and the work that much more beautiful.

Again, if you collect or find inspiration in the Fey folk, this book is a must have!

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Fairy Tale, February 24, 2010

By 

David C. Miller - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In the Forest Fey (Hardcover)

Amazing creativity both in the photography artwork as well as the story telling. Both parts were woven together to create the whole work -- allowing the reader to travel into the world between reality and imagination. Very enjoyable.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading description. Cheated!, August 10, 2007

By 

Faery Lover (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Forest Fey (Hardcover)

The book is very pretty. However, I am a serious Faery believer and only buy good Faery art books and documentaries.

The description of this book focuses on the fact that the author discovered a real life, centuries old journal about Faeries and, to her own surprise, found that she had inadvertedly photographed a real Faery, and went back to the cottage, where she took more photos that proved the existence of Faeries.

I fully expected the book to be mainly about the journal and to show these photographs as proof. How disappointing to see that it only contains made up art photos of models in 'fancy dress', wearing makeup and with artificial or Photoshop added wings. Even after the first page which describes the original real Faery photo, instead of its reproduction we get a beautiful model dressed as a fairy posing as described.

The promised old photos are so very few and so small, that if there are supposed to be Faeries in them, it's impossible to see them. And, unlike the human art photos, none of them have a name, any description or comment whatsoever, so we don't have any idea of what we are looking at. Furthermore, on the epilogue the author described artifacts, Chalices, etc that she discovered, stating that she included their photos on the book for the reader's interest. I searched over and over again and could not find any. The only photos at the end of the book depict the made up costumes.

The Foreword talks about the translated journal pages. I assume that these are the ones dated around the 17th century, because they just appear on the book without any reference. These are followed by writer story-telling tales which, together with the models photographs, make up the majority of the book's contents.

Visually beautiful this book certainly is. But its description is completely misleading. If you are into fairytale stories and modelling, then this book could be for you, but if you are serious about the Faery World and are looking for a documentary with proof as insinuated on its description, then stay right away from it!