Tonight we’ll read another Australian fairy tale called “The Fairy City” written by Hume Cook and published in 1925. This story can stand independently on its own, or as a follow up to "The Magic Well" episode that we aired last week.

James Newton Haxton Hume Cook, the author, was an Australian politician who served in Parliament for almost a decade. Beyond his political career, he wrote collections of fairy tales that blended imaginative storytelling with touches of local color, reflecting the desire of early twentieth-century Australians to see their own landscapes and culture represented in children’s stories.

“The Fairy City” is particularly curious in that it draws on imagery of architecture and civil engineering—disciplines often thought of as practical and technical—yet here given a whimsical treatment. Civil engineering, as a field, is one of humanity’s oldest pursuits, shaping daily life through bridges, roads, canals, and other public works. By weaving these concepts into a fairy tale, Cook turned topics usually reserved for city planners and engineers into something children could delight in, imagining a fantastical metropolis where fairies themselves might dwell.

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