Beatrix Potter, the twentieth century's most beloved childrens writer and illustrator, created books that will forever conjure nature for millions. Yet though she is a household name around the world, her personal life and her other significant achievements remain largely unknown. This remarkable new biography is an exploration of the life and times of an extraordinary woman.
Potter's was, Linda Lear reveals, a life inspired and enriched by nature. Even as a child and a young woman, growing up in a wealthy, conventional London family, her imagination and artistic talent were fed by visits to the countryside. She found personal and financial freedom through nature, first as an artist and scientific illustrator, and then as the creator of the overnight bestseller 'Peter Rabbit' - which also revealed her to be a far-sighted marketer and merchandiser. It was the little books that led Beatrix to her first great love: her editor and publisher Norman Warne, who died tragically just a month after he had proposed to her.
But Beatrix Potter was one of those rare individuals who is given a second chance at happiness. Her purchase of Hill Top Farm in the Lake District just after Warne's death led to her reinvention as a sucessful landowner and country farmer, and eventually to a happy marriage to William Heelis. She became a conservationist in order to preserve the landscape that had inspired her art, and, through the lands she bequeathed to the National Trust on her death, she saved whole areas of the Lake District for posterity.
At a time when plunder was more popular than preservation, she had brought nature back into the English imagination.'Beatrix Potter:A Life in Nature' reveals a strong, humorous and independent woman, whose art was timeless, and whose generosity left an indelible imprint on the countryside.

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It took an incredible fourteen years to get the movie 'Miss Potter' from script to screen. But when this story of one of the world's best-loved children's authors finally came to fruition it was with a dream team. Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger, playing Beatrix Potter, and Ewan McGregor as the man Beatrix loved, head a star cast and crew under the direction of Chris Noonan in his first film since 'Babe'.

In this book Garth Pearce tells the story of the film's lengthy development. He goes on set to discover how Renee Zellweger approached the role of Beatrix and what it meant to her. And he interviews all the major players, crew, director and producers to reveal what really happens behind the scenes on a movie. Photographer Alex Bailey was present throughout the filming and provides stunning screen shots and a wealth of background images that give the true flavour of the making of the movie 'Miss Potter'.

For many visitors, especially young ones, Beatrix Potter is the most interesting of the many Lake District writers, and the fact that so many of her stories have clear Lake District locations is here used as the basis of a series of short easy walks.
For the first time it is now possible to follow the adventures of Jeremy Fisher, of Squirrel Nutkin, of Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, and of course of Peter Rabbit and many others, actually walking in their footsteps and visiting their lakes and rivers, their houses and gardens.

Her imagination and her talent for painting were Miss Potter's only escape from her restricted routine. But then the publication of her children's book propelled her into a new world, where for the first time she experienced success, independence and, most unexpected of all, love.

Richard Maltby, Jr first wrote 'Miss Potter' as a film script, which has now been made into a major motion picture starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. For the novel the author expanded the plot-line of the script, blending historical fact with imaginative interpretation to tell the moving story of a remarkable woman's journey to love and fulfilment.

Forward by Fiona Reynolds,
Director General of the National Trust

Beatrix Potter first came to the Lake District on holiday in 1882, when she was sixteen. Although she had been born and brought up in London, she instantly felt a deep connection with Lakeland. Later she was to place many of her famous Tales in Lake District settings. After her marriage at the age of forty-seven to Cumbrian solicitor William Heelis, she became a full-time farmer and landowner there.
In this book Gilly Cameron Cooper looks at Beatrix Potter's relationship with the Lake District throughout the different stages of her life. She also shows how Beatrix Potter was a pioneer in recognizing the need for enviromental conservation and worked with the newly formed National Trust to preserve the landscape she loved so much.
When she died in 1943 Beatrix Potter left over 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust. Today the Trust continues to care for and protect this most highly-prized area of the English countryside. The many photographs in this book from the National Trust Photo Library demonstrate the beauty of Beatrix Potter's Lake District and show how much of her world still remains today, exactly as she would have known it.

Whilst delighting generations of children with her books, Beatrix Potter kept her own story locked carefully away.

Directed by Chris Noonan (Babe) and starring Academy Award winner Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jone's Diary, Cold Mountain) and Ewan McGregor (Star Wars, Moulin Rouge), Miss Potter is the enchanting love story inspired by Beatrix Potter's life and love affair with her publisher Norman Warne.

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