Becoming Beatrix

Most people know Beatrix Potter through the animal characters she created, including Peter Rabbit, Hunca Munca, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Squirrel Nutkin, and Jemima Puddle-Duck. This book presents the British author and illustrator as a far more varied figure. It traces her childhood, the people and experiences that shaped her, and the artistic talent she developed early on.

Potter's fascination with animals led her into the natural sciences, and her close study of fungi became a serious pursuit. The book follows how these interests fed into her drawing and, eventually, her writing and illustration, and how she built a career from them.

The story then moves to her later life, when she married and took up farming and sheep breeding. It also covers her work as a businesswoman and conservationist. Her path unfolded in Victorian England, where unmarried women seldom managed their own affairs, and the book shows how she made her own decisions and ran her own business matters.