At Home With Beatrix Potter: The Creator Of Peter Rabbit [Paperback]

Susan Denyer (Author)

Book Description

The creator of Peter Rabbit, Samuel Whiskers, and Jemima Puddle-Duck, Beatrix Potter (1866-1942) is one of the best-loved children's book authors of all time. Yet few in America are aware of the role she played in protecting some of England's most beautiful landscapes and in designing romantic interiors and a lovely garden at Hill Top, her beloved Lake District farmhouse.

Taking the reader through her picturesque house and the breathtaking scenery around it that inspired many of her famous stories, this charming book is the first to look at the intimate connection between the English countryside and Potter's work. Her own exquisite sketches and watercolors, as well as personal ephemera, appear alongside specially commissioned full-color photographs, revealing a home filled with treasured old furniture and beautiful objects and celebrating an artist-storyteller whose legacy as a conservationist at last receives the attention it deserves.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The richly illustrated At Home with Beatrix Potter will delight the many admirers of the artist and writer of children's books. Her beloved characters--Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and their whimsical friends--were inspired by the English countryside, which she grew to love during summer vacations as a girl. In 1905, at the age of 40, Potter bought Hill Top Farm overlooking Esthwaite Water in the Lake District, a region of hills and lakes famous for its glorious landscapes. She continued to buy property in the area with her royalties, and by the time she died 37 years later, she had amassed over 4,000 acres. She fought vigorously to preserve the beauty of the Lake District and its rural ways, leaving her estate to the National Trust, Britain's leading conservation agency. This book, written by an official of the Trust, is a tribute to the jewel of the estate, 17th-century Hill Top Farm. Potter restored and furnished it as a showcase of English country ways, though she actually lived in a large cottage nearby. Her substantial collection of Lake District antiques reflected the influential Arts & Crafts movement, which emphasized the integrity of handmade objects in a period of increasing mechanization. The book takes us on a tour of the farm, alternating the artist's original photographs and watercolors with photographs of the building and countryside as they look today. Several two-page spreads of the garden in early summer and the Lake District in late autumn are especially beautiful. Unpretentious, solid, charming, understated: At Home with Beatrix Potter embodies the rustic virtues that Beatrix loved. --John Stevenson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Will delight the many admirers of the artist and writer of children's books. Lakeland Echo A lovely book which has successfully knitted the many strands of Beatrix Potter's life into a delightful tale. Keswick Reminder A must for those who want an intimate insight into Potter's private world. Westmorland Gazette --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810921065
• ISBN-13: 978-0810921061
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,270,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A DELIGHT FOR THOSE WHO LOVE BEATRIX POTTER'S BOOKS, April 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit (Hardcover)

AT HOME WITH BEATRIX POTTER is a delight to the eye and the spirit for those who love this children's author and her "little books." It is written by Susan Denyer of Britain's National Trust. (Potter's property was left to the National Trust.) The focus of the book is Hilltop Farm, the first farm Beatrix Potter acquired. Although she lived across the road in Castle Cottage, Potter often used Hilltop for its library, guestroom, and workplaces. She also used it to display her "treasures." This book reveals her love of nature, the English Lake District, and of old things--carved dressers, chests, spinning wheels are a few of the "gems" portrayed. Two-page color spreads convey the beauty of the Lake Area, where Potter became a major landowner, sheepfarmer, and a happily married woman. It is wonderful to see the original places, buildings, and objects that she incorporated into her books (examples are shown side by side). The book's layout, photographs, and design are first-rate. Reading this book reminded me of THE PRIVATE WORLD OF TASHA TUDOR and its wonderful photographs by Richard Brown. Like Tudor, Potter drew what she knew and preferred country to city life. (Tudor also was a working farmer in New Hampshire.) Finally, this book presents information about Beatrix Potter and the things and people she loved in an informative and respectful way. This book is not a biography, and Denyer avoids the biographer's temptation to "sum up" or "explain" Beatrix Potter. Rather, we draw our own conclusions after being exposed to the things Potter loved. The select bibliography at the book's end provides a list of works on and by Potter (her journals and letters have been published) that is very helpful to those who want to know more about this author. This is a book to treasure.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ten stars, January 4, 2003

By 

MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit (Hardcover)

Being the big fan of Beatrox Potter, the woman and not just the author I was overjoyed to get this as a gift recently and the book is a treat for the eyes. While it has pages and pages of stunning photographs as well as her own water colours, it is the text and complete history of her farms that is awesome.

That and reading and seeing photographs of her as well as her farms and reading why she bought each property and the breeds of sheep she raised was of special interest to me. I loved seeing the inside of her farms, although I had seen the inside of a few, via the National Land Trust to whom she left her properties.

I loved the photographs of Beatrix and how she was so eccentric, kind yet firm and a woman ahead of her time. And it was nice to read that she was a true homestead style woman who had the waste not want not mentality, as well as a deep appreciation for quality and hated to see old bridges torn down for modern ones, although she was quick to make sure the stones and plants, wood and other things being discarded by some, didn't end up in some dump area but were recycled into new walls and buildings and plantings on her property.

This is a book a cottage gardener, keeper of sheep. painters, stone masons and anyone who loves working with their hands will love. As well as sincere environmentalists and organic gardeners and farmers.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blend of Biography, Original Sketches and Scenic Photography, April 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit (Hardcover)

This book is a balanced combination of biographical information, Beatrix Potter's sketches and paintings, and exceptional scenic photography of the Lake District she helped preserve. It also details the exterior and interior of a house she owned which provided the backgrounds for many of her book illustrations. The side-by-side comparisons were interesting, even though the house seemed to be more of a showpiece than her actual residence. (Thus, the book title is somewhat misleading.) I found this book to be of exceptional quality and, although the text was sometimes overwrought with property, town and house names, the book includes many captioned photos and a map that allow the reader to appreciate the area in which she lived.