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Hedgehogs and heartbreak
On the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth, a new exhibition and book reveal her troubled childhood – and the tragedy that scarred her for life.
Emma Laws, a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, is showing me letters written by Beatrix Potter to her friend Millie Warne in February 1906. It’s wonderful to see Beatrix’s strong, clear handwriting on yellow notepaper. In one she tells Millie she’s staying in Bath with her aunt and has been to the Pump Room for a glass of hot water (‘which I thought extremely dear at 2d’, she observes). And she frets about the health of Tiggy, her pet hedgehog.
But there is an undertow of sadness to the letter – because Beatrix was a deeply sensitive woman who never got over her first love. In July 1905, at the age of 39, she had become secretly engaged to her editor Norman Warne, who was 37 and Millie’s brother. Her parents, shocked that their daughter was thinking about marrying ‘into trade’, did not approve of the match. But Beatrix would not be overruled.
She went on holiday with her parents to north Wales. On 24 August she wrote Norman a letter – ‘a silly letter all about my rabbits, and the walking stick that I was going to get for him to thrash his wife with’, she recorded in her diary – but he was never to read it. The next morning she received a telegram telling her that he was ill. That afternoon he died of leukaemia, before she could go to see him. She wrote later in her diary, ‘I am quite glad now I was not in time, I should only have cried and upset him, and I am sure he would have sent for me if he had wanted me.’ It’s typically understated. But Beatrix was heartbroken. ‘It was the end of the relationship and possibly her dreams of finally leaving her parents,’ says Emma Laws.
Today, of course, Beatrix is one of our most famous children’s authors. Her house, Hill Top in the Lake District, attracts thousands of visitors a year. More than two million Potter books are sold annually. She’s among Britain’s best-loved literary exports – the 2007 film Miss Potter (where Renée Zellweger played the author) has made her story almost as wellknown as that of her Flopsy Bunnies.
And 2016 is a special year – the 150th anniversary of Beatrix’s birth next week on 28 July 1866. Celebrations include a new musical, the publication of several new biographies and a V&A display devoted to her early life in London, which brings together images, letters, sketches and her earliest published works. Beatrix was a remarkable woman. At a time when women had no vote and little access to higher education, she was a successful writer and artist, as well as an environmentalist, farmer and businesswoman. She also made a contribution to science and natural history that wasn’t recognised for a century. Helen Beatrix Potter was born into a wealthy household. The family lived at 2 Bolton Gardens in Kensington, west London, where she was educated by a governess and kept a menagerie of pets, including a bunny called Benjamin Bouncer (later the inspiration for Benjamin Bunny), a green frog, a dog, mice, a squirrel and a hedgehog.
Her father encouraged her love of books and introduced her to artists (such as the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais who was a family friend) and scientists. ‘There were family holidays to Scotland and the Lake District where Beatrix was able to be on her own and explore,’ says Sarah Glenn, curator of the Warne archive. But when her brother Bertram was sent away to school, she had ‘the typical teenage worries about her future’, says Emma Laws. ‘There was the added weight for a young woman of that era that you couldn’t just leave home if you weren’t married.’
From 1881-1897, Beatrix kept a journal written in a secret code she’d invented herself (and which wasn’t cracked until 1958), possibly to shield it from her mother’s prying eyes. Researching Beatrix’s life for her new biography The Story Of Beatrix Potter, author Sarah Gristwood was struck by ‘just how far down she went at various points. Entry after entry in her journal breathes a depth of gloom that would surely set alarm bells ringing today, combined rather oddly with that bright-eyed interest in the world around her, and a tough-minded quality. It makes you realise just what a straitjacket the life of a Victorian daughter-at-home must have been for someone of her abilities.’
But she threw herself into her studies and by her early 20s, Beatrix was producing beautiful drawings of fungi and collecting mushroom specimens for observation. The expert George Massee presented her research to the all-male Linnean Society, but it was never published because of their prejudice. A century later, in 1997, they issued an apology, agreeing her research had been ‘treated scurvily’. Today her drawings are consulted by mycologists all over the world.
Beatrix also began doing illustrations for greetings cards. Aged 27 she wrote a now famous illustrated letter about one of her pet rabbits, Peter, to the son of an ex-governess, Annie Moore. Annie suggested Beatrix turn it into a book. The reception from friends and family astounded her, so she made an edition for sale. Six publishers rejected it, so Beatrix published it herself. It was such a success that she asked the publisher who’d sent the politest rejection letter, Frederick Warne & Co, to reconsider. They agreed, and the youngest Warne brother, Norman, became her editor.
Finally meeting Norman gave her confidence – and hope. Norman admired Beatrix’s strength of character while Beatrix was won over by his sense of humour and imagination. They exchanged letters every day (sadly none survive). The official
Tale Of Peter Rabbit came out in 1902 and by Christmas it had sold 20,000 copies. Beatrix went on to write 23 volumes of stories including The Tailor Of Gloucester and The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin. She and Norman became engaged when she was 39.
Her childhood holidays had sparked a love affair with the Lake District and, using her royalties she bought a small farm called Hill Top in the village of Near Sawrey in 1905, where she intended to live with Norman. No wonder it was devastating when he died less than a month after their engagement. ‘It’s almost as if she’d never really believed that, for her, a happy ending was a possibility,’ says Sarah Gristwood. After Norman’s death she spent half her life in the Lake District, buying up a patchwork of local farms and ensuring that traditional farming methods were used. ‘I think her work, and the prospect of a new life in Near Sawrey, must have saved her,’ says Sarah. The Lake District was clearly a major influence on her writing. Squirrel Nutkin sailed on Derwent Water, Hawkshead was the setting for Johnny Town-Mouse. In the drawing of Jemima Puddle-Duck you can see the porch of Hill Top. Beatrix later bought Yew Tree Farm in Coniston, where Miss Potter was filmed, and became an expert in breeding Herdwick sheep.
To help her with her property dealings she used a local solicitor, William Heelis. In 1912, William proposed marriage and she accepted. She was 46, he was 42. Beatrix’s parents were displeased but eventually relented, and the couple were married. It was perhaps more about companionship than passion, but they were very happy.
Beatrix never forgot Norman, however, and wore his ring on her right hand for the rest of her life. In a letter to Millie dated November 1918, five years after her marriage, she recalls how she nearly lost the ring lifting wet sheaves in the cornfield. ‘My hand felt very strange and uncomfortable without it.’
During WWII she contributed to the war effort, producing food and wool for a beleaguered nation. But her health was failing. Beatrix died aged 77 on 22 December 1943 from pneumonia and heart disease. William passed away 18 months later. She left 4,000 acres of Lake District land to the National Trust, plus 14 farms and cottages as well as her house at Hill Top.
Beatrix was a great businesswoman. She oversaw merchandising and patented a design for Peter Rabbit in 1903, making him the world’s oldest licensed literary character. Today there are hundreds of products from china to children’s toys. Prince George’s nursery was decorated with a Beatrix theme (the Middleton family are distantly related to the author).
And her 23 tales are still loved the world over – since Penguin Books acquired Frederick Warne & Co in 1983 more than 150 million copies have been sold. What’s striking is how unsentimental the stories are. There’s always a hint of violence – her animals never know whether they’re going to be embraced or eaten. ‘It’s nature red in tooth and claw,’ says Roger Glossop, the co-founder of The World Of Beatrix Potter attraction at Bowness- on-Windermere in the Lake District.
It’s been 25 years since Roger, a West End theatre set designer, and his wife Charlotte set up the attraction, which recreates Beatrix’s stories in a 3D setting. And for the 150th anniversary Roger’s persuaded old friend Alan Ayckbourn to write the lyrics for a new musical, Where Is Peter Rabbit?, to be staged at their theatre until 4 September. ‘Alan’s plays are similar to Beatrix’s writing,’ Glossop says. ‘They’re terribly funny, but there’s always this underlying difficulty with human relationships. And in Beatrix’s stories the animals have this other part of them, this need to survive. I told Alan at the start, “It’s not just about the Flopsy Bunnies, there’s a dark side to this.”’
Beatrix Potter was an amazing woman for her time, he insists. ‘I’d say she was instrumental in the start of women’s rights in this country. She came from this stultifying family and broke out to live this other life, buying land which she ultimately gave to the nation. She was a completely independent female.’ Beatrix Potter’s London is at the Victoria and Albert Museum from Thursday until 28 April 2017. The Story Of Beatrix Potter by Sarah Gristwood is out now (£15, National Trust Books).