Monday, October 20, 2008

Beatrix Potter

I recently watched the movie "Miss Potter" with Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor and thoroughly enjoyed it! Although the movie has some historical inaccuracies, it was heartwarming and I particularly liked the animated scenes where the animal characters came alive.

Watching some of the scenes at the Lake District also made me homesick for Cumbria (I spent a year at Lancaster University and whiled away many happy weekends exploring the Lake District; a bus ticket only cost five pounds then).

I hadn't realised how accomplished Beatrix Potter was. A self-taught artist (her first book, ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit,'' was published in 1902 and sold 28,000 copies between October and Christmas that year); an astute businesswoman (she began merchandising a Peter Rabbit doll as early as 1903); a expert mycologist (she studied and drew lichens and fungi) and a sheep breeder with 14 farms covering 4,000 acres.

She bequeathed all her property to the National Trust, a charity dedicated to preserving British heritage. One of her quotes was - "Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality"