11. Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

Chosen:
Miss Rebecca Do Rozario,
School of English, Communications and Performance Studies, Faculty of Arts

Fairyland of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite / verses by Annie R. Rentoul ; stories by Grenbry Outhwaite and Annie R. Rentoul. (London : A. & C. Black Ltd, 1931) [donor: Sandy Michell]

The fairies of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite are well-known. Pale, ethereal and a touch art nouveau, they are often fleetingly glimpsed against the Australian bush background, engaging with a kookaburra or koala. Outhwaite was born in Melbourne in 1888 and her work contributed to Australia’s most ambitious publishing exercises of the time, including Lothian’s deluxe version of Elves and Fairies (1916). Less known are Outhwaite’s collaborators. In Fairyland (1926 – Australia, 1931 – London), one of her last great fantasy books, Outhwaite’s sister, Annie R. Rentoul, contributed verse and stories and Outhwaite’s husband, Grenbry Outhwaite, added ‘Serana: The Bush Fairy.’ The story hints at the lingering colonial mentality of Australia’s roaring 20s and, while the narrative is sometimes contrived and even long-winded, the accompanying full page watercolour and black and white illustrations provide the contemporary whimsy of a sociable outback distinguishing Australian fairy tale of the time; koalas, chubby cheeked, elvish fairies and a delicately coiffed fairy in fashionable draperies playing tennis across a cobweb net in ‘A Tennis Tournament’ for example.

‘Far, far away from the Place-We-Know, far distant even from that great plain that lies at the Back-of-Beyond, which is behind the mountains of Make-Believe, where the rivers of Happiness commence to flow; much farther than the Land of the Never-Never, which is reached through the forests of Dreamland, whence come the sweet murmuring songs that gladden our hearts, lies the mysterious country where Queen Fancy lives in the midst of her wonderful court.’ (46)

Annie Rentoul’s verse is, in turn, lively and undemanding. Her poem, ‘The Shingle in Fairyland,’ cheerfully celebrates the emergence of the flapper in fairy tale.

Imagine, I pray, the sensation and shock
When a Fairy arrived in a very short frock,
A rose on her shoulder, her nose in the air,
Pert wings and a shingle, instead of long hair.

Sadly, after Fairyland, the stylish fairies of Outhwaite and her collaborators diminished, but they linger still in the national imagination.