Beatrix Potter: artist, storyteller and countrywoman

Duration: 55

Year Published: 1993

Creator: Weston Woods

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Artwork and archival photographs complement this biographical portrait of the beloved children's author/illustrator Beatrix Potter. Born in London in 1866, Beatrix, a sickly child, exhibited a precocious talent for painting and drawing the natural world which she closely observed with her brother Bertram on family trips to Scotland and the Lake District. These early artworks together with writings from a journal written in code between 1881 and 1897 and picture letters written to the children of her former nanny Annie Moore were the beginnings of what were to become Potter's renowned children's books. Beatrix Potter's career as an author began in 1902 with the publication by Frederick Warne Publishers of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and continued with such well-loved stories as The Tailor of Gloucester, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck and many others. In 1912, Potter, against the wishes of her elderly parents, married the solicitor William Heelis and for the next thirty years, was an active member of the Lake District's sheep farming community. Beatrix Potter died on December 22, 1943, leaving a rich literary legacy and 4,000 acres to the National Trust of Great Britain.