Skip to main content

Tale of Beatrix Potter – Know the Author

Tale of Beatrix Potter – Know the Author


The celebrated children’author Helen Beatrix Potter was born on 28 July 1866 to Rupert and Helen Potter in Kensington, London. Both her parents were from an artistic background and they encouraged both their kids to draw. Beatrix had a habit of writing journal in codes. She is known for her simple tales for children. What made her stories unique is that the beautiful drawings of nature and animals that complimented the stories were drawn by herself.

Beatrix Potter in Her Childhood
Most of her animal characters were taken from her life. Beatrix Potter kept a lot of pets like rabbits, mice, frogs, snakes, lizard and even a bat. It was her rabbit, Benjamin that became an inspiration to write Peter Rabbit. The second rabbit she owned was named Peter Piper. Every year she and her family traveled to Scotland to spend the summer, which was her favourite time of the year when she explored the countryside. No wonder her stories have the flavour and fragrance of a countryside. Her love for nature, plants, animals and children are made obvious in her stories. She was a naturalist of her time when women were not. Beatrix Potter was an award winning farmer and in 1943, she became the first woman elected as the President of the Herdwick’s Sheep Breeder’s Association.
Beatrix Potter with Her Dog, Kep 
Did you know the original Tale of Peter Rabbit was a letter? It was written to entertain one of her governess Annie’s son, Noel who fell ill often. She drew picture along with the story. Later it was Annie who suggested to publish her stories. However, her stories were rejected by most of the publishers, so Beatrix Potter self –published her first story- The Tale of Peter Rabbit and distributed to her family and friends. Its success made Frederick Warne & Co. to reconsider if Beatrix Potter could do the illustration in colour. It became a bestseller in 1902 and was followed  by other stories. Every year Beatrix Potter published two or three little books and wrote a total of 23 books in her lifetime. As her eyesight diminished a few sketches from her sketch book had to be combined together for her later books. Her last picture book was The Tale of Little Pig Robinson, published in 1930.


The Tale of Kitty in Boots
The Tale of  Beatrix Potter
One of her story ‘The Tale of Kitty- in- Boots was hidden in the archives and the publisher Jo Hanks found the sketch and the rough manuscript in 2013.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For the Life of Laetitia - A Book Review

For the Life of Laetitia  by Merle Hodge For the Life of Laetitia - Front Cover For the Life of Laetitia I am glad I bought this book. For the Life of Laetitia is a must-have in our children’s collection.  I u sually do not go for those books that has a smaller font size and a very little spacing between the lines like in this book or suggest it for children either, but this is an exceptional book and I recommend it for your children. Once in a while let our kids drop those fantasy books and read some realistic stuff like these. The language is simple and vocabulary is easy to understand even for the young readers. In short, I got hooked to it as soon as I started reading. For the Life of Laetitia- Back Cover In For the Life of Laetitia , Merle Hodge has beautifully captured the dreams and life of Laetitia, a young Caribbean girl, who became the first one ever in her family to attend secondary school. In spite of poverty and racism she strives to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Know the Author - Merle Hodge

Merle Hodge Merle Hodge Born in Trinidad in 1944, Merle Hodge along with her 3 sisters were taken care of by her grandmother. Raised up by the tough lady, she became bold and   independent. Merle Hodge was one among a very few who attended secondary school. She later won a scholarship to join for Undergraduate Degree and later for Masters in Philosophy. Merle Hodge is the first African Caribbean to publish a novel, Crick Crack, Monkey in 1970. It was followed by another book, For the Life of Laetitia for young adults. Her writings, reflects the colonial education, culture and lifestyle of the colonized. Her books throw light into the racism, gender discrimination and social divisions during post colonial period. In addition to the novels, Merle Hodge has also written short stories, essays and articles on her observation on the Caribbean families and society. Books Written by the Author: Crick Crack, Monkey For the Life of Laetitia The Knots in English: A Ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting Granny’s Glasses - A Book Review

Getting Granny’s Glasses by Ruskin Bond Getting Granny’s Glasses is a short story written for children. The story is about Grandma's journey together with her grandson to buy new glasses for her. Mani, the 11 year old lost his mother in his early childhood and was brought up by his grandmother.  Her eyes were getting weaker, her glasses older. So Mani insisted on getting new glasses for his granny. It was a 2 day journey to Mussoorie and granny’s first trip outside her village after ten years.  The journey on foot and in the bus was quite eventful. Though a landslide in between the journey brought an abrupt stop to their exciting adventure, it was his granny’s willpower that made them continue their journey in a different route. After all, giving up is not an option for a granny who still manages to climb trees even in her late sixties. At last they reached the town, bought new glasses for granny and came back. Mani enjoyed travelling and shopping with his granny. Granny got h...
Post a Comment
Read more