The Story of Beatrix Potter: Her Enchanting Work and Surprising Life by Sarah Gristwood

 

Author: Sarah Gristwood

Title: The Story of Beatrix Potter: Her Enchanting Work and Surprising Life

Publisher: National Trust 

Published: 2021

Pages: 160

Genre: Biography 

     Few people realize how extraordinary Beatrix Potter's 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, then a pioneering conservationist.

     I think for a lot of people Betrix Potter was their first entry into the more grown-up world of children's books. So I am told my mom read some of them to both me and my brother when we were just wee ones. But I suppose she has become so very quintessentially a part of what a great many think of when they talk about this green and pleasant land. A bastion of a time now long lost to the past. Even if that is to look back on that period of time with very rose-tinted glasses. In many ways, she was also a part of my past those books such once loved now sitting in some dust forgotten corner. It wasn't until a recent trip to the lake district did here name come back into my mind. Through a week spent exploring I started to learn how we owed her a great debt. In great part if not for her I fear that place we have far more hotels and tourist traps replacing a land she hoped to preserve for future generations 

     I suppose one thing you need to factor in when picking up this book is that it's not some grand tome trying to explore every aspect of Beatrix's life. It is a book put out by the National Trust themselves in the hopes of giving a bit more context into her life. Gristwood has done a grand job of carefully selecting which key moments to include in the work. And in so doing you get an overview of her life from birth to death. Along the way getting to see some of the bigger peaks and valleys of her tale. As someone who didn't have all that great understanding of her, I managed to take away a fair bit of new information about her. But I think if you already have a working knowledge about her then this book might just be treading water for you. 

     Throughout the book, we are treated to a great many of her paintings helping not only to show where she was at, at various stages of her writing career but also how her style developed. This meshing of text a picture also makes it akin to one of her own books. It means it can be accessible to pretty much anyone. It is best to remember this book is more than likely aimed at the tourist mark to be sold at her various property in the lakes. But for me, it gave me a starting point for learning more about her. She was in many ways a woman who pushed the boundaries of her age but also understood the climate of the age. It certainly gave me a much better understanding of just how much she did for England away from the pages of her books. And just how much she hoped could be saved for children of the future.