Every so often, a book character comes along that captures the imagination of children everywhere and some of the most delightful of all were found tucked in pages of Beatrix Potter’s books. Characters like, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tiggy Winkle, Squirrel Nutkin and of course Peter Rabbit.
Beatrix Potter was born in 1866 and educated at home by a succession of governesses. The parents were overprotective, rarely allowing her to mix with children other than her younger brother Bertram.
Ian Dejardin: She was born into her classic wild to do Victorian family and as the daughter of the house, effectively she was brought up I suppose to look after her mother really it was thought to be her role in life or to marry. She only have those two options but she was already by about the age of ten, she was already a really quite scold naturalist. She was a natural drawer, she drew everything she saw and she was particularly interested in fond guy and in animals. She always loved animals and she always loved children and she wrote to the children of friends or nieces, nephews and that’s how little books started because she wrote little illustrators letters.
In 1893, Potter wrote to know more the five-year-old son. The letter included the introduction I should tell you a story about four little rabbits.
In 1902, the age of 36 after being rejected by a number of publishers, she decided to print that story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit herself. After she had done so a small publishing house called Frederick Warne & Co agreed to publish it. The book was a smash hit and before long Potter was owning enough money to gain her independence from her family.
A series of successful little books followed. All carefully size so that the children would find them easy to pick and read. Title such as the Tale of Gloucester, the Tales of Samuel Whiskers, Pigling Bland and Tom Kitten appeared between 1902 and 1930, all illustrated with Potter’s inimitable drawings.
And despite opposition from parents who couldn’t counter Beatrix being involved with someone who trade, she became engaged to her publisher Norman Warne, owned to be heart broken, he died of pernicious anemia before the wedding can take place.
To help her recover from the shock of Warne’s death, Potter retreated to her beloved little lake district where she board Hill Top Farm in the village of Sawrey in Cumbria. Potter had been visiting this most picturesque part of Northern England since a child and having been taught about its significance and the importance of conserving its outstanding natural beauty by local vicar called Hardwicke Rawnsley.
As the years went by and the royalties from her book s continued to pour in, Potter proceeded to buy up further areas around Hill Top and eventually the age of 47, she married the solicitor, William Heelis and moved into Hill Top Farm permanently.
While she was married, she began to focus less on her writing and more on practical things like framing and looking after her surroundings. She became an expert sheep breeder, specializing in Herdwicks.
She used her inheritance on the deaths of her parents to buy more farm and tracks of land in the Sowrey area and then when she has self died in 1943, she left her almost all her state to the National Trust which her old friend Rawnsley had to help to create. Today her legacy is stronger than ever. Over 100 years after Peter Rabbit first entered the publics consciousness, the magic Beatrix Potter’s creations continues to enthrall children.
Hillary Pezet: It’s just so magical and you can have all the news such the trendy things that children like but in the end, it is so very much based on a childhoods—such a rural childhood that children just love it. It’s very magical.
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