Author Description

When Beatrix Potter died in 1943 no one, not even her husband, knew the full story of her life. Despite her fame--two generations of children had been brought up on the Peter Rabbit stories--she preferred anonymity, hiding her creative genius beneath the persona of a formidable lakeland farmer. Margaret Lane's biography is a piece of detailed literary detective work. She tells the story of Potter's life, her lonely Victorian childhood, her struggles for independence, her suppressed intellectual brilliance, her unhappy love affair and happy marriage and the accidental influences that shaped her artistry. Lane claims a degree from Oxford, but it is clear her education began at the hands of Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Jemima Puddle-duck, Flopsy and other members of the Potter barnyard.