Book Blurb & Info
Strong, regal, and dazzling, there is no more romantic a creature in both folklore and pop culture than the majestic unicorn. Known for its preference for solitary living in the depths of enchanted and perfumed forests, the unicorn will only occasionally reveal itself to virginal ladies and/or save the day with its magical horn, which is said to neutralize poison when dipped into food or drink.
In medieval times, unicorns were a symbol of chivalry and aristocracy, so it’s no surprise that they became the ideal companion for gallant knights, and eventually, the symbol of Jesus in many illuminated bestiaries. They also came to represent unknown danger in the ancient city of Persepolis in 515 BCE, a belief immortalized on the British coat of arms with the unicorn shown as the mighty lion’s fiercest opponent. This feud also appears in a traditional English nursery that was the origin of the quarrel between The Lion and the Unicorn in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.
It wasn’t long before a piece of the unicorn’s mane, blood, and horn became hot commodity in man’s pursuit for immortality. Today, unicorns can be found in modern tales like Harry Potter, television shows like My Little Pony, colorful Lisa Frank-inspired fashion and makeup trends, and must-have food crazes like the Unicorn Frappuccino and bagels.
Divided into four sections: flora and fauna; fashion and beauty; arts and culture; home, food, and entertaining―The Unicorn Handbook is the ultimate compilation and guidebook filled with step-by-step projects and recipes throughout. Learn how to make your very own unicorn tail loop braid or unicorn dust for that extra sparkle in your life. There are recipes to make a plum cake straight from the world of Alice in Wonderland and tips on how to throw the most unique garden party ever (complete with instructions on how to make unicorn horn table favors and utensils). And there’s also an exclusive interview with Peter S. Beagle, the author of the classic tale The Last Unicorn.
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Book Excerpt
EXCERPT FROM THE UNICORN HANDBOOK
Introduction
This book is about a creature so wild and dazzling, so otherworldly yet so of this world in its most enchanting form, that you might want to bathe in purified water infused with rosemary and lavender before handling its pristine pages. Consider unplugging from your electronic appendages, and possibly even retreating from humankind altogether, before reading further. In our modern age, the unicorn may wink out from glittery pink and purple kitty cafes, toy stores, cartoons, and frothy rainbow drinks, an icon of kitsch and fizz, but actual unicorns are so fantastically pure that the human eye cannot even recognize them.
It’s common knowledge that when the unicorn leaves the enchanted wood to explore the world beyond, it appears like a regular horse to humans, so you might want to look carefully at the next hooved creature or two you come across, just to see if you can detect some extra sparkle. In Peter S. Beagle’s tome, The Last Unicorn (1968), when people gaze upon a unicorn they see only an old white nag, which begs the question: How many normal-looking creatures, animals and humans alike, are not only not what they seem but are actually unicorns?
Even more than the mermaid, with her come-hither sexuality, or fairies, with their mischievous penchant for whisking humans off to fairyland, the unicorn is unadulterated glamour, divinity on Earth, the purest heart of the forest—and untouchable. When unicorns deign to hang out with humans at all, they prefer to pass the time with virginal ladies—and, if possible, ones with long, lustrous hair who don’t mind petting them, protecting them from the occasional wild-eyed hunter, and hanging out by streams whose clear waters glisten like diamonds.
Before you turn the page, imagine yourself standing next to a glittering brook flowing through a deep forest glade. Here, flowering vines drape over everything like starlets on old-time chaise lounges. Branches twist, covered in moss. Sunlight spills through the leaves, bright green and shaped like hearts, to decorate the forest floor. Birds sing and foxes dart and butterflies flit about showing off the latest fashions. The brook burbles and shimmering fish rise to the surface of the water, which is so clear you can see the grassy bottom. Around you, imagine every kind of flower blooming all at once, the clean perfumed air, the bees buzzing from bulb to bulb, the riot of colors and scents. Trace your fingers upon the tree bark, step barefoot on the petals that have fallen and marked out your path. Breathe in as you enter the deep heart of the forest.
This is where you find the unicorn, most likely loping gracefully about or lying in a bed of moss snacking on sweet forest berries, its head gently laid upon a virgin’s lap.
Look!
Come. Let’s go say hello.
—Carolyn Turgeon
Teasers
Toot's Review
Absolutely one heck of a collection for any Unicorn lover or High Fantasy fan!
From recipes to history and everything in between; this is a stunning collection of everything Unicorn. Grab your inner child and learn the mythos behind the majestic creatures than follow your learning up with slice of Unicorn cake and a chaser of Unicorn pop culture. No matter your preference, this is just a beautiful book to have around the house for any fan and should be part of your collection.
Although the ebook has some beautiful pictures and can still be enjoyed for the contents, I would honestly recommend buying the hardback because this is a show stopper piece and should be displayed. I have the other books in the series and I just can't explain how absolutely stunning these books are. There's just no compare.
Either way, the details the author has put into the compilation are astounding and thoroughly researched. She has added many categories so that it's not just a history lesson but a celebration for the fandom.
So, go grab the book and fully immerse yourself in all things Unicorn.
Author Info
I’m Carolyn Turgeon, and I’m the author of five novels—
Rain Village, Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, Mermaid, The Fairest of Them All, and The Next Full Moon, most of them based on old-time fairy tales, dark and glimmering—and, more recently, The Faerie Handbook, which came out from HarperCollins in November 2017 and might be the loveliest book printed this century, and the equally curvaceous The Mermaid Handbook, which came out in May 2018. A third handbook will make its ravishing debut in spring 2020.
I’m also the editor-in-chief of Enchanted Living (formerly Faerie Magazine), a quarterly print publication about which the NY Times said, "It's as though Martha Stewart Living and Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene had a magazine baby.” You can learn about the magazine here, or subscribe here. Recent themes have included Victoriana and Practical Magic and Art Nouveau, and recent covers featured a flame-haired lady knight lying in a field of belladonna and a recreation of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Beata Beatrix.
I love travel and adventure and have attended mermaid camp at Weeki Wachee (where I swam in a tail with glamorous mermaids and a wild manatee), spent five days at a witch camp in Woodstock, and was scuba certified in Corn Island, Nicaragua, by a dive instructor from Spain, then dove with sharks in the Bahamas. I’ve visited Italy numerous times to research a new novel (and was in a PhD program at UCLA way back when, studying medieval Italian poetry) and this past spring visited a count’s private archives in the same Florence library where Hannibal Lecter worked in the Thomas Harris books.
Currently I live in a 1930s building in Baltimore that might have emerged from a Greta Garbo film and/or The Shining, depending on your mood, and I’m writing like a madwoman, usually from my purple velvet couch. If you’d like to subscribe to my newsletter, I might send you a missive now and then. I’d love to hear from you.
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