Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life

December 15, 2013
Part of the charm and eye-delighting intricacy of Beatrix Potter's beloved children's books about such endearing and enduring characters as Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck are the precisely and vitally rendered illustrations of the English gardens, farms, and landscapes her characters so actively occupy. In this sumptuously illustrated gardening biography, horticultural consultant McDowell, who is fascinated by writers who garden (her first book was Emily Dickinson's Gardens, 2004), fully illuminates Potter's deep botanical knowledge and joy in cultivation. When publishers rejected her first attempt at a children's book, Potter self-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, launching a brilliant career. When she purchased Hill Top Farm in the fabled Lake District, she set out on the path that led to her becoming an intrepid gardener, savvy landowner, sheep breeder, and conservationist, ultimately leaving thousands of pristine acres to the National Trust. With wit and expertise, McDowell highlights the stamp of Potter's horticultural know-how on her indelible books and chronicles a year in her exuberant gardens to create a visually exciting, pleasurably informative appreciation of Potter's devotion to art and nature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)