Product Description

Beatrix Potter's books are adored by millions, but they were just one aspect of an extraordinary life. This captivating biography brings us the passionate, unconventional woman behind the beloved stories: a gifted artist and shrewd businesswoman; a pioneering scientific researcher; a powerful landowner who conserved acres of Lakeland countryside; a daughter who defied her parents with her first tragically short engagement and who, finally was given a second chance of love and happiness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17281 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Review
one of the most interesting Englishwomen of her time (Charlotte Moore )

Curl up will Lear's excellent new biography (Daily Mail )

Potter's marvellous voice, captured in letters and journals, comes through loud and clear ... Lear gives us much to consider about this unfamiliar and remarkable woman (Daily Telegraph )

Lear blasts through the myths and misconceptions to reveal a Victorian rebel ... biography at its inspiring, riveting best (Scotland on Sunday )

The fullest and most authoritative biography of Potter to date (Independent on Sunday )

About the Author
Always intrigued by how the lives of artists and writers have been influenced by the natural world, Linda Lear discovered quite by accident that Beatrix Potter had passions and interests way beyond those of her legendary series of little books for children. A professor of environmental history and the author of the prize-winning biography, Rachel Carson: Witness of Nature, Lear is an enthusiastic horticulturalist and collector of botanical art.

Customer Reviews

What a superb book!
This is a superb book. I borrowed it from the library and am now just about to buy it, I know I'll read it again and again. I feel like I've just stepped back in time and met some fascinating people. Not just Beatrix but many of her friends and those who have influenced her described in detail and are interesting in themselves. The appendix showing the reasearch is huge and also a good read, so much so that I intend to read about the work of others.
To know Beatrix's later life is also to know the origins of the National Trust and the conservation movement and that is also another component of this fascinating woman's life detailed in this book.
I could hardly put this book down once I'd started it. It's easy to read and an excellent introduction to a fascinating person, her friends and activities. Highly recommended.

An absolutely absorbing biography!
I borrowed this book as soon as it appeared in the library and have rarely enjoyed a biography so much. Although I knew that she had been very influential in conservation in the Lake District I had no idea what an amazing woman she was. The recent film starring Renee Zellweger, which I thoroughly enjoyed, seemed with hindsight to trivialise her achievements, though I suppose it had to concentrate on her books, these being the best-known aspect of her life. This very well researched book fills in all the gaps, shows what a fine botanist she became, with only her status as an amateur and a woman preventing her from being better thought of in professional circles. She was a ground-breaker in the study of fungi and an excellent botanical artist. I hope that this book will serve to tell the world at large of the real Beatrix Potter.

Wonderful biography
Dr. Lear has written an amazing biography of a fascinating woman. Ms, Potter was an early feminist and conservationist, and this engrossing biography with its evocative descriptions of the Lake District made me want to visit this extroadinary country. I recommend this book unreservedly to anyone interested in nature, feminism and the English countryside.