The Story of Beatrix Potter

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To this day, Beatrix Potters tales delight children and grown-ups around the world. But few people realise how extraordinary her own story is. Respected biographer Sarah Gristwood discovers a life crisscrossed with contradictions and marked by tragedy, yet one that left a remarkable literary and environmental legacy.
Sumptuousa fitting legacy for a pioneering conservationist who helped save thousands of acres of the Lake District The Mail on Sunday, August 2016

To this day, Beatrix Potters tales delight children and grown-ups around the world. But few people realise how extraordinary her own story is. She was a woman of contradictions. A sheltered Victorian daughter who grew into an astute modern businesswoman. A talented artist who became a scientific expert. A famous author who gave it all up to become a farmer.

In The Story of Beatrix Potter, Sarah Gristwood follows the twists and turns of Beatrix Potters life and its key turning points including her tragically brief first engagement and happy second marriage late in life. She traces the creation of Beatrixs most famous characters including the naughty Peter Rabbit, confused Jemima Puddleduck and cheeky Squirrel Nutkin revealing how she drew on her unusual childhood pets and locations in her beloved Lake District. She explores too, the last 30 years of Potters life, when she abandoned books to become a working farmer and a pioneering conservationist, whose work with the National Trust helped to save thousands of acres of the Lake District a legacy that, like her books, continues to enrich our lives today.

Main text: 30,000 words. Approx 3,000 words for captions and index.

Author Bio

Sarah Gristwood is a best-selling biographer, former film journalist, and commentator on royal affairs. She has appeared in most of the UK's leading newspapers and magazines. She wrote two bestselling Tudor biographies, Arbella: England's Lost Queen and Elizabeth and Leicester; and the eighteenth-century story Perdita: Royal Mistress, Writer, Romantic which was selected as Radio 4 Book of the Week. A regular media commentator on royal and historical affairs, Sarah was one of the team providing Radio 4's live coverage of the royal wedding. She is a Fellow of the RSA, and an Honorary Patron of Historic Royal Palaces. She is the author of The Story of Beatrix Potter and Game of Queens: The Women Who Made the 16th Century.