Professor George Anthony McGinn

Professor George Anthony McGinn was born in Mayfair, London, United Kingdom, in 1839. He was a renowned writer and illustrator of the 19th century, and sometimes issued his work under nom de plumes including Hector Buddle, Uriah Goodfellow, Edwardo de Indigo, and — his most famous female pen name — Veronica Van de Burgh.

He wrote extensively of a mysterious and faraway place he called the Forgotten Woodlands of Pondilly. The Woodlands, he said, are divided into Fairydoms, each overseen by a nymph maiden who personifies an aspect of nature. The one he knew best was Belle Fleur of Forgotten Green, guardian of plants, flowers, trees, and all that grows from the earth.

Pondilly (Pondillier, sometimes Pondle) is a real place you unknowingly drift into when daydreaming. It is neither here nor there but somewhere in between. It exists not before or after but alongside the present moment. The visit is usually momentary, then dissolved into a forgotten memory. Grasp that ephemeral hour, the Professor maintained, and you might stay a little longer — perhaps even forever.

His contemporaries were sceptical. Some compared him to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Cottingley fairies; others to the charlatans who fooled poor Sir Arthur. Then, in 1894, the Professor mysteriously disappeared. Speculation held that he had fled the grey monotony of the real world for Pondilly. He was not seen again — until now.

After more than a hundred years, he has returned to share his hand-drawn illustrations and accounts of this wondrous place. The Illustrated Alphabet is that sharing: click a picture and it lives; download it at full resolution and send it to someone you love.