Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

This chapter focuses on Beatrix Potter, who was depicted in Linda Lear's authoritative biography as undoubtedly heroic. Dauntless and public-spirited, Potter pitted herself against a world dominated by incompetent and obstructive men. It talks about how Potter was a serious student of natural history who pursued research unthought of by the established male scientists of her day long before she began her famous series of little books for children. The chapter considers Potter's animal books for children as the first to reflect accurate knowledge. Animal behaviour in her stories, though fantasised, is based on years of scientific investigation and hundreds of precise drawings.