Who Was The Real Beatrix Potter? | Patricia Routledge On Beatrix Potter | Timeline

hi everybody and welcome to this documentary on timeline my name is dan snow and i want to tell you about history hit tv it's like the netflix for history hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the world's best historians we've got an exclusive offer available to fans of timeline if you go to history hit tv you can either follow the information below this video or just google history hit tv and use the code timeline you get a special introductory offer go and check it out in the meantime enjoy this video [Music] i'm patricia routledge and i'm in search of one of britain's best love writers that's astonishing really astonishing more than a storyteller she was an extraordinary illustrator who used her talent to bring her characters to life her art was very special she could dramatize a story in pictures jemima puddle duck mrs tiggy winkle and most famous of all peter rabbit i am of course talking about beatrix potter as a child i was familiar with beatrix potter's characters it seemed that everybody was throughout the world one of her books is bought every 15 seconds her 23 little tales are as popular now as they ever were the woman herself began to come alive for me when i depicted her in a stage play in 1990 and i'm now patron of the beatrix potter society 150 years after she was born i want to follow in her footsteps hoping to discover the real woman behind the myth it's a masterpiece of simplicity and charm how did she become an edwardian publishing sensation beatrix potter was the jk rowling of her age this very determined woman who knew that she'd created this character that everybody would love and now 75 years after her death when we thought all her stories had been told how is a new book about to take its place in the world of beatrix potter to have the chance to bring a story to the world that has never been seen that's a chance in a lifetime renowned illustrator quentin blake is taking up beatrix's brush this is very exciting let me tell you why i believe beatrix potter is one of the most remarkable women of all time in july 1892 mr mrs potter were off on holiday with them was their 26 year old daughter beatrix her life was about to change forever traveling with them was peter piper destined to be the model for the most famous little rabbit in the world the family were bound for scotland and a rented holiday home in the town of dunkeld for rupert potter it meant deer stalking grouse shooting and fishing the salmon lanes on the glistening river tay [Music] mrs potter would take tea with friends but beatrix always preferred to be outdoors and as she was enjoying the fresh air in the grounds of this house something took place that would one day make her famous all over the world on the afternoon of september the 4th 1893 she sat on this lawn and wrote a letter to a little boy who was ill noel moore was the son of her friend and former governess the children of friends would often receive letters from auntie beatrix they were animal stories the principal character of this particular story was sunning himself just two feet away beatrix had paid four shillings and sixpence for her bunny which she thought was rather pricey today that animal would probably be worth millions [Music] in the letter to noel beatrix called him simply peter and gave him three little friends and here it is from it springs everything that afternoon in scotland here's the date saw the genesis of her first and most famous character peter rabbit would one day be as famous as mickey mouse but he came along much later my dear noel i don't know what to write to you so i will tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names are flopsy mopsy cottontail and peter what's there not to love about peter rabbit i mean i think he's one of those first literary characters that children children meet on their on their kind of reading journey [Music] beatrix potter's own story began in 1866 when she was born into a wealthy family here in kensington london the family fortune had been made by her grandfather edmund at his prosperous lancastrian mill beatrix's parents never spoke of their northern roots her mother entertained and her father enjoyed gentlemen's pastimes he poured most of his energy into outdoor sport fishing shooting but he loved the arts he attended lectures the theater visited art galleries was a considerable photographer and he was never without a sketchbook [Applause] artistic talent was in beatrix's jeans you can see it in the childhood paintings that are kept locked away in the archives of the victoria and albert museum so we have here a selection of early um drawings by potter beginning with a sketchbook she created when she was nine years old oh my you can see the date march 1866 you can see that she's used rabbits and imaginatives yes drawings and the humor is already there yes and it's wonderful i think a lot of people aren't aware of the finesse of this artwork her detailed drawings would one day be combined with compelling stories that brought them alive beatrix's love for animals began on the top floor of the potter home until she was six when her brother bertram was born beatrix's days were spent alone with nanny in the nursery now i know that doesn't sound very exciting in fact it may have been the making of her this reconstructed victorian nursery was a place where imagination ran wild and more than imagination beatrix and later bertram created their own private zoo peter rabbit and his friends originated in that nursery there were rabbits mice and bats the real jedi fisher was a frog called punch beatrix had a natural affinity with animals most of the menagerie came from pet shops but from an early age she was able to win the trust of mice that lived in the dark recesses of her room she would call them out giving them all names and they'd sit in her hand there was nothing namby-pamby about her she loved worms and snails she drew a detailed drawing of a bath that belonged to bertram he left it with her when he went off to boarding school with instructions that if it wouldn't eat she should kill and stuff it which she did i don't think beatrix could have drawn pictures like these if she hadn't been fond of animals but her approach was also scientific the potter children observed and recorded the behavior of their animals but when a creature expired it went straight into the pot so that the bones could be carefully examined beatrix and bertram were bunny boilers portraying a person who has made their mark on the world is a great challenge for an actress and it was important to me to familiarize myself with the historical background it became clear that her father treated her as an equal rupert potter encouraged his daughter to share his interest in the latest scientific ideas beatrix grew up in a learned clever household where all the new ideas were being discussed and she would have been aware from childhood onwards that human beings and rabbits and hedgehogs and frogs are in a sort of way cousins darwin believed and i'm sure beatrix potter believed that we are all basically animals the first pictures that brought beatrix an income were painted when she was 23 of animals dressed as humans over here we have an example of some christmas cards that she produced that's astonishing really astonishing and her brother bircham delivered them to the offices at hildesheimer and faulkner and then the next day she received a check for six pounds so it's a pound for each of her six designs [Music] art offered beatrix independence and her own money but as she approached her thirties she set off on a different course she might never have written a single book in 1892 again in scotland bear trips met a man who would have a profound effect on her life charlie mcintosh was a renowned natural historian it was in this house beatrix showed him paintings he thought so remarkable that he became her mentor in a great scientific adventure the pictures were of mushrooms beatrix left these fungal masterpieces to the armout museum in the lake district where graham kilner is the curator welcome to our little den of treasures patricia well it's very exciting to be here would you like to see one of our microscopic drawings yes i would oh look at this and we believe that these are some of the finest things that she did look at the word and the texture of that exquisite she got to know the wonderful charlie mcintosh yes she didn't she charlie mcintosh was quite a well-known naturalist in scotland yes he was a guy with plenty of expertise but not very good painter yes uh meeting this young lady they had a collaboration mostly conducted by post oh look for the next 10 years after spending five years studying the way mushrooms reproduce beatrix realized british books on the subject were incorrect she began visiting the experts at kew gardens she took it to the place where you'd expect them to be most interested in her discoveries about fundraising for her ideas to be taken seriously beatrix's paper had to be read at london's linear society [Music] but in 1897 a woman couldn't even enter the building so her paper was presented for her the scientists decided it needed more work beatrix withdrew it they wouldn't let her read it they wouldn't let her read it that basically is the tale of beatrix potter in science what might have been of course had they accepted the paper you may never have she'd have gone off in a different direction peter rabbit and friends would not only bring beatrix fame and fortune oh my word but her cast of characters would also bring her true love when beatrix potter sat on this lawn and wrote a story for a little boy about a rabbit called peter she had no ambition to become an author it would later turn out to be a turning point in her life and in hours but at the time it was just a letter eight years later beatrix was still searching for freedom and independence her friend and former governess anymore suggested that the rabbit letter might make a children's story victorian publishing is a booming world and it's a it's a tough world it's suddenly been brought into being actually on a huge scale by the abolition of paper tax in the 1860s so suddenly printing stuff is really really cheap and there's a huge explosion in just the amount of things that people read she expanded the story added illustrations and sent it to six publishing companies they sent it back straight away with no opportunity for discussion she was now 34 and had already faced rejection from the scientific community but like her characters she was ready to buck the system so i think it probably was even more difficult for her to break into publishing and then equal obviously as a woman the publishing industry in the 19th century is not really interested in its authors it wants to get them as cheaply as possible sometimes it makes them pay for the publication of their own work you know it's a place where people got ripped off against all opposition beatrix used her own money to publish her book this is one of 250 copies of the very first tale of peter rabbit it was an immediate success more were printed but the publishing companies still said no not to be defeated she sent a copy to a seventh firm the renowned frederick warren i think it would have been quite a coup in some senses for beatrix then to eventually be published by them um but they were certainly taken as a very serious player in terms of children's publishing definitely it worked once sent a letter declaring their interest they rather patronizingly called it the bunny book clearly they had no idea who they were dealing with so what's here so this is the dummy manuscript for the tale of peter abbott this is the book which beatrix prepared for her publishers goodness flippy oh my word beatrix knew exactly what she wanted from printing to the size and shape of the book she gave them this homemade version she banned the copy herself yes and she used the pages from her privately printed book as the illustrations for the dummy manuscript it's a masterpiece of simplicity and charm it was however in black and white they said it should have color illustrations she just wanted to have line drawings and for about a year there was an ampas and that was why the book didn't get published at first and then she did of course these superb watercolors which we all know of his little blue coat and then they had a bestseller on their hands beatrix potter was the jk rowling of her age this very determined woman who knew that she'd created this character that everybody would love mr mcgregor was quite sure that peter was somewhere in the tool shed perhaps hidden under a flower pot he began to turn them over carefully looking under each presently peter sneezed katisshue mr mcgregor was after him in no time warns announced the first edition on october the 2nd 1902 32 year old beatrix potter was a published author and the public reaction proved that she was now hot property the first printing of the tale of peter rabbit 8 000 copies was sold out before it reached the shops earlier than that though beatrix had decided to publish another story privately her second book the taylor of gloucester was based on a fairy story about a tailor who one night leaves behind an unfinished waistcoat in the morning he finds it completed beatrix of course made the mystery helpers mice she was determined to get the details of her interior settings absolutely accurate so she talked her way into a tailor's shop taking some gloves needing repair in order to acquaint herself with the tools of the trade the tailor worked and worked and talked to himself he measured the silk and turned it round and round trimmed it into shape with his chairs the table was littered with cherry-colored snippets no breath at all and he cut on the cross it had no breath at all tidbits for mice ribbons for mobs for mice said the tailor of gloucester readers wanted more for the next book the tale of squirrel nutkin beatrix looked for models at her local pet shop yes quite right quite right what have you got to say the idea of having a private menagerie was a real aspiration particularly for arty upper middle class victorians you would go to jam racks um a shop in the east end that could sell you a tiger dante gabriel rossetti the poet and painter bought lots of wombats from jamrac who dug up most of cheney walk kipling had a toad called pluto that used to sleep in his mother's bedroom and in the early 20th century ring-tailed lemurs were very popular among upper-middle-class lesbians for the squiddle project she waited in vain for a friendly game keeper to capture one and in the end bought two red squirrels who fought endlessly but still became the models for squiddle nutkin and his merry band [Music] one autumn when the nuts were ripe and the leaves and their hazel bushes were golden and green knocked in a twinkle berry and all the other little squiggles came out of the wood and down to the edge of your lake beatrix was now a rising star at her publishers and although relations with the managing director had warned were strained she had found a kindred spirit in his youngest brother [Music] norman even harold warren must have noticed that when beatrix wished to discuss art direction or editorial it would be with norman an only normal and if norman were away on holiday she would find herself unavailable the books became very much a partnership that they worked together on almost every aspect the text the pictures the printing beatrix was spirited which norman admired he was tall and sporty which he found attractive when he proposed she was overjoyed her life was turning in a direction that she wanted it to go she was obviously very much in love with norman very much wanted to marry him her parents were against the marriage refusing to announce the engagement in the newspapers beatrix wore norman's ring anyway their objection to him appears to have been because he was in trade um in publishing was considered a trade by them what they had forgotten of course or chose to ignore was that they themselves were one generation away from definite trade norman sent the printers two books which they'd worked on closely together the pie and the patty pan and the tale of mrs tiggy winkle what's that thing said lucy that's not my potty tanking oh no if you please them that's a little scarlet west yet belonging to choc robin and she ironed it and folded it and put it on one side beatrix was looking forward to married life but three weeks into her engagement her parents whisked her swiftly out of london the potter household together with some mice rabbits and the hedgehog mrs tiggy winkle were off to wales no doubt mr mrs potter thought that a four-month separation from norman might have their desired effect on beatrix unfortunately they needn't have worried in london norman was unwell but no one realized how seriously the telegram arrived in wales on the 26th norman had died the night before of leukemia he was 37. she wrote in her diary that she was glad she hadn't been there because she'd only have cried and upset him and he surely would have sent for her if he'd wanted her there they had been engaged for only a month and they had never had one second together without there being a chaperone present in the room to ease her heartbreak beatrix turned to her animal friends and in a new home found the inspiration for more adventures in 1905 beatrix potter's life was turned upside down instead of enjoying a happy marriage she was facing a future alone with characteristic grit she threw herself into her work her writing and nest building she's already published five books she's got two more to do to be published that year she started work on a seventh and then she leaves and she is really kind of in the middle of nowhere bear trips already knew and loved the lake district the potters had once rented this house for a summer holiday she'd been enchanted by the beautiful landscape and the village of near sorry she wrote in her diary that it was as near perfect a little place as ever i lived in it was a long way from london but that was exactly what she wanted the lake district was a remote area a wild area celebrated as wild and remote it is a kind of internal exile [Music] devotees think of this village almost as holy ground walking around you see the sight she saw every day the fields and homes that if you look closely where the background to some of her best love stories when she saw her dream cottage she decided to draw on some of the money she'd made from her first books beatrix potter purchased hilltop farm for the sum of 2805 pounds a lot of the locals thought she was just a silly southerner who'd probably paid way over the odds but that didn't bother her at 41 she'd moved on and moved in and what's more this house provided the perfect setting for some of her best loved stories the first of which was the tale of tom kitten here is the window where tabitha twitchit tried to brush tom's whiskers and was scratched for her trouble the porch where she let the kittens out into the garden while she made hot buttered toast and the garden wall where they played until their clothes were ruined having started she can't stop and there's she finds inspiration everywhere suddenly her sketchbooks were filled with characters in real hilltop rooms there were ideas for stories even in things that went wrong while she was settling in this whole place was infested with rats the roly-poly pudding written in 1908 also featured tom kitten this time as the hapless victim of a huge rat called samuel whiskers all at once he fell head over heels in the dark down a hole and landed on a heap of very dirty rags opposite to him was an enormous rat what do you mean by tumbling into my bed all covered with smuts said the rat chittering his teeth it wasn't just the house that inspired beatrix near the farm was a small lake it's still a quiet spot teeming with wildlife she loved frogs harold warne had turned down her suggestion of a frog story but in 1906 he relented f warning co had the temerity to question ms potter and whether she got the colors right of a frog and she turned up at the publisher's office with a live frog in a jar mr jeremy stuck his pole into the mud and fastened the boat to it then he settled himself cross-legged and arranged his fishing tackle he had the dearest little red float published in 1907 the tale of jeremy fisher immediately sold 25 000 copies beatrix was on a roll three years after she'd moved to the lake district the lady from london was changing and so was her perception of animals by 1909 she had her own flock of sheep and they were as tough as she was the herdwick is native to the fells an ancient sturdy and noble animal used to roughing it on steep hillsides in all weathers it was her duty to build a flock it must have felt like destiny it's not just about looking more cumbrian i think it's an expression of her academic interest too probably appealed i think to her scientific interests you know she's a person who's interested in evolution over three decades beatrix potter championed these sheep and the people who reared them will rowling's family have been shepherds on these fells for 800 years i believe your father remembered her as a little boy he did meet her didn't he he did betray spotter was i'm told by him was a very uh fearsome looking woman well she'd like children to behave well absolutely absolutely and not pin shell i'm sure he was very well behaved as well my father actually met her she was judging herdwick shape at the local ennerdale show when my father was just a child so she was actually instrumental in the formation of the edward shaped she was president-elect but she must have been very proud to have been elected i hope she was she wouldn't show it possibly [Laughter] in 1908 beatrix wrote only one story featuring her own sheep dog cap what are you doing with those onions where do you go every afternoon by yourself jemima paddle duck jemima puddle duck is among beatrix potter's most famous creations in the book her local pub the tarbank arms becomes the home of the bird that ruled the roost for 26 years before donald duck was hatched the tale of jemima puddle duck was a huge success it immediately sold 20 000 copies and was reprinted twice in the same year she's a very attractive character i think jemima puddleduck but she is an interesting figure because you can tell that the author despises her and there is a cruel comedy about mimer paddle that but it's a very true comedy not only does she nearly die but she's absolutely humiliated and we're told at the end she never was a very good layer the books were still rolling out and the money was rolling in but beatrix was exasperated by the unadventurous attitude of her publishers potter is very very canny about spin-offs from these books merchandising it's something that the publisher now to our eyes is absurdly laid back about ever since the first appearance of peter rabbit she had enjoyed an extremely lucrative income from merchandising in 1910 she registered a jemima puddle duck doll joining her highly successful peter rabbit doll so successful in fact that it was widely copied by pirate toy makers she designed wallpaper hot water bottles coloring books her name and her characters had become a guarantee of sales by 1911 beatrix potter had lived in the lake district for six years and written 10 books at hilltop farm she'd also become a landowner the paperwork was undertaken by a local solicitor in the village of hawke's head so onto the scene there comes another of those dependable men with the wit and wisdom to recognize an exceptional woman when they see one like norman william helis was tall shy and sporty he was also eligible it was not a conventional courtship but a love that grew organically out of mutual respect and the inevitable proximity of their professional association even in their old age beatrix's parents still opposed her choice of husband but in 1913 beatrix and willie were quietly married in london her next book was the tale of piggling bland it's the usual boy pig meets girl pig story they run away together escaping a policeman and an evil farmer with bacon on his mind there are those who say that because it was written during her courtship miss potter now mrs helis is in fact pigwig the beautiful little berkshire who ran off over the bridge and far away with piggling bland i don't think i support that theory but she could effectively start the skipping off process keen to leave behind her pen and paintbrush life as mrs helis was full of joy but beatrix was worried she suspected her publisher harold warn of dubious business practices she was his most important author the talent that paid the bills but she would wait weeks months even before receiving her royalty checks it was suspicious and in 1917 harold warren was arrested in this street charged with fraud and imprisoned warns were a very respected company so the idea that they were about to be toppled by the by the fraud of a family member would have been pretty scandalous the company was almost bankrupt harold warn had cost beatrix dear but he was norman's brother she had to save her publishers aptly dapley was a book of rhymes beatrix had had on a shelf for years speedily published the proceeds saved the firm [Music] in sorry where she now chose to be known only as mrs helis beatrix and willie moved into a larger home castle farm beatrix was heavily engaged in buying up farms and farmland the books provided the cash and william the legal services and it was in this house that she embarked on her greatest enterprise a cause that seems to have been waiting for her all her life the conservation of the lake district only three more of beatrix's tales were to be published her literary career was over or so we thought well quentin this is very exciting soon after beatrix potter bought her lake district home in 1905 she became part of the community she realized how well she'd blended in when she met an old traveler of the road one stormy night he'd noticed her old boots and ragged tweeds and muttered something that made her laugh on such a night as this he said only tramps like thee and me would be out and about it amused her and i think gave her some satisfaction it was proof of how far she had come from her grand victorian roots far from being a vagrant she was probably the wealthiest person in the county beatrix and her husband william helis wanted to use the money wisely she's done 19 books by then but by that point i think she throws herself very much into being a country wife and a landowner and she uses the royalties from her books to buy farms to look at preserving the way of life in the lake district it was the beginning of the last chapter in her remarkable life she had long been involved with a local group that eventually became the national trust she had clear ideas about the environment and business [Applause] [Music] john moffett represents the trust in the south lakes now do you think there was any element at all of self-interest in all this we know from some of the transactions with the national trust how candy she was and how she didn't let opportunities go and initially it was land around hilltop and in sauri and then in 1930 she bought the monk honest and estate which was the biggest purchase she made we have a great letter where she wrote she bought the whole estate because the national trust couldn't afford it and she sold half onto a straight away but she made a point of saying it was the worst half and she kept the better half for herself quite right but i genuinely think her concern was to look after the lake district beatrix wrote no more of the little tales that had made her world famous though there were a few more books for her american readers now in her seventies she was happiest in the hills with her prize-winning beloved herdwick sheep but out in all weathers she suffered frequent bouts of illness [Music] beatrix potter died in the winter of 1943 age 77 at her request there was no public funeral no headstone no fuss [Music] her ashes were scattered by her farm manager tom storey somewhere in a secret place in the countryside she loved to the locals she would be remembered as a great character a farmer and an indefatigable to her admirers the world over she will always be the inspired creator of that timeless icon peter rabbit and a cast of other lovable animals there's only one problem with beatrix potter's little books for devotees like me there can never be enough of them she left us 23 of her tales but a century and a half after she was born there's about to be another one in 2013 researcher joe hanks made the discovery of a lifetime a manuscript called kitty and boots i came across it while looking through an old biography of potters and there was quite a lot of material relating to this title beatrix had offered this tale to warns during the first world war but to no avail beach is part of was briefly very interested in kitty and boots and pushed it quite hard to frederick warren i think if warns had been enthusiastic and encouraged her it might have been published years passed and the tale of a gun-toting cat was forgotten until now kitty called herself miss catherines and quintin chee's box called her q and winky peeps called her squintums they were very common cats beatrix had finished the story of kitten boots but only produced this single illustration now sir quentin blake is taking over where beatrix left off this is kitty reborn well sequentine this is very exciting was there a sense in any way that you were overwhelmed by the invitation can i say no [Laughter] when you're doing books the problems are the interesting part really you know her art was very special in a way because she could tell a story dramatize a story in pictures her style was very spare very economical your style is entirely different this this is just out of a notebook and thinking well that's what what does winky peeps look like you know that's their fault and this is the very first picture that i did this is her with in the norfolk jacket and the and the fur line boots ready to go yes how did you know what color of a gunshot sounds don't worry it looks like that it's very interesting because one of my friends was pointing out to me recently it's an onomatopoeic drawing it looks like what it sounds like i think to have the chance to bring a story to the world that has never been seen in a form where people would have access to it so it's been in other books it's been mentioned but not a proper full beatrix potter book that's a chance in a lifetime kitty is another character will come to love in the story she meets old friends like mr todd and mrs tiggy winkle she happens to be an animal but like her better known cousins kitty is as human as we are beatrix potter is still adored the world over every year two million of her books are sold her late district home is a shrine pilgrims come to touch to smell to breathe in the atmosphere beatrix potter was born in the age of steam and died in the nuclear age but the world she invented never changes remarkably the author of this treasure trove of whimsical literature was born of tough meloning stock but within the same lancastrian dna was a feeling for light and line dexterity of pencil and paintbrush and one of the most active imaginations of any age before i undertook to portray her on stage my research is suggested that she was a person of steely determination now that i've walked in her footsteps again i see that beatrix potter was much more than that she was the very stuff of which true heroines are made [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Id: Z0ZVB_SzZoM

Length: 46min 59sec (2819 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021