Monday 2 April 2012

B is for Beatrix Potter

Who hasn’t heard of Peter Rabbit? Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail? Jemima Puddleduck? Squirrel Nutkin?

All these were the creation of Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator, and many of them were created when Beatrix lived in the Lake District.

Helen Beatrix Potter was born in London in 1866 and, from an early age, showed a talent for drawing and painting, and also an interest in wild-life. She published her first book, ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’ at her own expense, but the following year it was re-published by Frederick Warne and Company. After that, she produced 2 or 3 of the small format books each year, which were very popular because of her delightful illustrations, her depiction of countryside and the characteristics she gave to her animals.

In 1905, Beatrix used some of her income from her books to buy Hill Top Farm in a small hamlet near the village of Hawkshead in the southern Lakes. What many people don’t realise about Beatrix is that, as well as being an author and artist, she also became keenly interested in the breeding and raising of the Lakeland Herdwick sheep and, after buying another farm on the east side of Windermere, she became one of the main Herdwick sheep farmers in the area.

She was also committed to land conservation and preservation, bought large tracts of land, and eventually donated all her property and land to the National Trust, which still holds and cares for that land today.

In 1913, she married a local solicitor, William Heelis, and his office, in the village of Hawkshead, is now ‘The Beatrix Potter Gallery’ with many of her paintings and sketches.

She died in 1943, but when I started visiting the Lakes in the 60’s, I got to know several older people who remembered her doing her shopping in the village. The farmer’s wife (at the farm where we had our caravan) described her succinctly: “Aye, she were a funny ol’ woman, but yer ‘ad to admire ‘er for everythin’ she did around ‘ere.”

35 comments:

  1. I remember reading her books as a child at my Granny's. I think the copies where hers from when she was a child.

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  2. Really interesting piece, Paula

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  3. Patsy - I bet those copies would be quite valuable now.

    Thanks, Jenny :-)

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  4. How cool!! I would have never known all this about her!! I loved her books and still have the ones given to me as a child here!! What a fantastic story to share with all of us!

    Cheers,Jenn

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  5. this was fascinating..i never knew that! So great to see a picture of her too! TFS!

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  6. There's never been anyone like Beatrix Potter, has there? I've visited her house in the Lake District and decided that the beautiful scenery and surroundings must have been her inspiration. The place is enchanting.

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  7. I love Beatrix Potter and still have a full set of books, which were my mothers when she was a child. Beautiful illustrations and simple words, making a magical world for children, which stays in the mind, even when you're very old (like me!)
    Thanks for bringing back lovely memories.

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  8. Thanks, Jenn, Brenda and Susan. She is quite a 'legend' in the Lake District. Agree that she chose a beautiful area to buy her house. I just wish that the Renee Zellweger movie had shown more of her later life.

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  9. Lovely books, lovely writer. I wish the movie were longer.

    --Damyanti, Co-host A to Z Challenge April 2012

    Twitter: @AprilA2Z
    #atozchallenge

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  10. ah, thanks paula.. you have taken me to my past, remembering my dad, and his telling peter rabbit's story... :)

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  11. How neat to have actually met some people who actually remember her in daily life! And perhaps naively, I didn't realize she was sthe actual illustrator of those books. I grew up with those books, and my boys loved them briefly. Though one, my sentimental one, at 8 still occasionally likes to return to them . Great B! followed your A-Z link from the Writers Post.

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  12. Damyanti - excatly the comment I made about the movie. I'd like to have seen more about her later work in the Lake District.

    Danne - so many people have happy memories of Beatrix Potter's stories.

    Thanks, Anon. Yes, she was an artist first, I think, before she started to make up stories about her 'animals'.

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  13. What a wonderful story! She was truly a fascinating person. I have always treasured the books of hers I still have from my childhood.

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com/

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  14. I never knew she was a sheep herder. Thanks for giving us a look at her background. Love learning authors and where their stories come from in relation to their personal experiences.

    Amy
    http://amywritesnet.blogspot.com/

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  15. What a fascinating woman she was. I never knew! Thanks for this post!

    Amy

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  16. Very interesting woman (and a bit odd). Great post.

    mood
    Moody Writing
    @mooderino
    The Funnily Enough

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  17. I loved Beatrix Potter as a kid and have a whole bunch of her books (and china figurines that my mom collected for me).

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  18. I've visited the museum and I found it so fascinating. I think I own at least 6 of her books, I love her drawings!

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  19. I've always loved her books. The film, Miss Potter, is a very good potrait of her life - and a feel good film.

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  20. Kathy, Amy and Amy - glad I was able to give you some extra information about her.

    Mood - yes, seemed to be slightly eccentric as she got older, but definitely a force to be reckoned with!

    Jenn - you could collect hundreds more figurines if you went to the Lake District, so many shops there have them.

    Claudia - it's years since I last went to the gallery in Hawkshead, but agree her drawings are beautiful.

    Rosemary - agree 'Miss Potter' was good - as far as it went! There should now be a sequel with the latter part of her life, which i think was even more interesting!

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  21. This was an excellent glimpse into the life of a legend. Thanks Paula!

    A-Z 2012 (#49) - Bloggit Write A-Z 2012 - Poetry
    A-Z 2012 (#861) - Bloggit Write A-Z 2012 - Haiku

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  22. This was just lovely. I have the Beatrix Potter collection on VHS. I watched them and enjoyed them just as much as they did. The setting starts with narration from Beatrix Potter and she sits down in this cottage on the farm you pictured, at her desk with her fountain pen, paper and paints as the stories of her animals come to life. Loved this! :)

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  23. Thanks, November and beachlover.

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  24. tried to leave a comment but Google doesn't like me this morning for some reason. Lovely post. The first Beatrix Potter books were illustrated with B&W line drawings. I saw one on the BBC Antiques roadshow valued at 130,000pounds. The versions with the coloured plated were first produced after WW1 around 1920 I think. These too are extremely valauble. The sets were reprinted in the 1950's and we sold these in our Antique store for really good money if we could ever get our hands on them. The Beswick figurines were just as sought after and those early ones from the 1950's sold for many hundreds of dollars. These were the ones with the gold round back stamps. My favourite was Jemima Puddleduck.

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  25. Thanks for trying again, Shirley! Wish I'd kept the couple of Beatrix Potter books I had as a child in the 50's, they might be worth some thing now! At the start of my Fragrance of Violets novel, my heroine dropped and broke a figurine - it was Peter Rabbit, not Jemima Puddleduck. Squirrel Nutkin was another of my favourites.

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  26. Very interesting post on Beatrix Potter! Nice B word.

    Welcome to the Challenge, Paula!

    KarenG
    A to Z Challenge Host

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  27. I learned the word 'soporific' from Beatrix Potter. No, I don't mean her books made me sleepy, though my parents may have wished they did. It was the word she used to describe the effect of lettuces on Peter Rabbit.

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  28. Aw I love Beatrix Potter! I could not tell you how many times we read Peter Rabbit as kids :) Thanks for the moment of nostalgia and happy A-Z'ing!
    ~AJ @ frodofrog.blogspot.com

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  29. How interesting! Thanks for all that good stuff!

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  30. As soon as you announced your theme, I thought of Beatrix Potter. I loved the stories when I was young, and my bedspread when I was young was a faux-patchwork quilt with the characters on there. Such fun.

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  31. hi Paula! So great to meet you through the AZ Challenge! I'm always impressed with someone who can really write...and has been published, too! Good for you!

    Love your chocie of B here...a favorite of everyone!

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  32. Great tribute to a wonderful lady!


    Catch My Words
    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com/

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  33. Thank you for sharing a beautiful piece of literature history! Love Beatrix Potter and her work!

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  34. KarenG - many thanks!

    Jacula - you have a better memory than me, LOL!

    ayjay - glad you enjoyed the nostalgia!

    Jo - thanks!

    Elizabeth - that sounds like a lovely quilt

    Betsy, Joyce and Susan - very many thanks!

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