Born Helen Potter on July 28th 1866 this famous children’s author is better known to us all by her middle name, Beatrix. Growing up in a privileged household, Beatrix lived a solitary childhood and would instead spend her time with her myriad pets wandering the grounds of her holiday homes in the Lake District and in Scotland learning about and developing a love for the local flora and fauna there.
Although opportunities for further education were very limited for women of the period, Beatrix’s study of fungi and her stunning watercolour depictions would lead her to becoming very well respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties, Beatrix would publish the highly successful children’s book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and then began writing and illustrating children’s books full-time.
Beatrix was able to put her love of wildlife into practice when she received a legacy from an aunt, which along with the proceeds of her books, allowed her to purchase a farm in order to preserve the landscape. Over the next few decades, along with her husband William Heelis whom she married at age 47 she bought several other farms all with the view to preserving the land. Upon her death at the age of 77 all this land was bequeathed to The National Trust and now goes to make up a large part of The Lake District National Park.
With over 30 books to her name Beatrix has become a timeless part of many people’s childhoods and her stories continue to sell well, being made into films, ballets, animations and songs and here we celebrate those stories with 10 Wildly Wonderful Beatrix Potter Quotes .
“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.”
“I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations.”
“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”
“Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work.”
“What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?”
“If I have done anything, even a little, to help small children enjoy honest, simple pleasures, I have done a bit of good.”
“One place suits one person, another place suits another person.”
“We cannot stay home all our lives, we must present ourselves to the world and we must look upon it as an adventure.”
“I do so hate finishing books. I would like to go on with them for years.”
“So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere.”
I cannot imagine life without Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and friends, and if you have young children who you love to read to, you need to have at least one of Beatrix’s books in your repertoire.
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