Tuesday, July 03, 2018

The Story of Beatrix Potter - Sarah Gristwood

I must admit to have not grown up reading Beatrix Potter books, but as I have grown up I admire the talent in writing and illustrating them and am not immune to their charms.  I liked this book about Beatrix Potters life, from the most Victorian of childhoods where she was more or less isolated at home with her uptight parents.  She was surrounded by pets and had a huge interest in nature an adored holidays spent in Scotland and the Lake District.

As her success as an author grew after writing thirty books, she was able to use her income and a legacy from an aunt to buy first one farm, and then many other properties in her beloved Lake District and when she died she gifted the land to the National Trust, preserving their beauty for the generations ahead.

Somehow though I came away feeling sad for this kind and talented woman who seemed to have had a  lonely time for a lot of her life. 3/5

2 comments:

sallyhicks said...

I read a different biography and agree she was really sad when her fiancé died but think she was happy for many years married to the solicitor who had been a friend since she was a child. Have you watched the DVD with Renee Ziegler? I felt she turned Beatrice as an adult into an almost comic cartoon type person.
If you enjoy that era you may like Lakeland Journels by Dorothy Wordsworth. I think it it is a really fantastic book and bought it from Amazon but the library is bound to have it. The complete volume is packed with colour paintings and b/w sketches of Wordsworth,Coleridge and heaps more. One of the best books I have read.

John Bellen said...

I always liked Beatrix Potter - though I preferred other children’s books, such as “Alice in Wonderland” - but even as a child, I wondered why some animals wore clothes and cooked in kitchens and others acted like real animals.