The Real Beatrix Potter

Book excerpt: The Real Beatrix Potter is a fascinating and revealing biography of one of the world's most cherished children's authors. Beatrix Potter's famous little white books have enchanted generations of young readers who adored the characters she created and of course her own distinctive illustrations. Born into a typically repressed Victorian family it was assumed that Beatrix would achieve little more than finding herself a rich husband, and so there was no point in bothering to educate her. But the Potters underestimated their daughter. Stifled by the lack of stimulation, she educated herself in art, science, and of course a great love of the natural world. The success of Peter Rabbit proved her to be creative genius who could have become the toast of the London literary scene, but when her fiancé tragically died Beatrix retreated to the Lake District where she reinvented herself as a successful farmer, a canny businesswoman and an early environmental pioneer. Passionately campaigning to save the area from development she helped establish the National Trust, and despite her great wealth Beatrix lived out her days in humble anonymity.