Her love of nature, together with a lively imagination and artistic skills, led to the creation of some of the best loved story books ever written for young children.

Even though her little animal characters are appealing, the stories are not based on sentimentality about cute and cuddly animals, but are lively tales of individual characters with interesting places to venture and full of exciting things to do.

The individual stories are both full of humour and relate to true life experiences that would be encountered by the animals in real nature where all the animals have to watch out for their natural predators.

Beatrix Potter was born in London in 1866 into a well-to-do family but her childhood was exceptionally lonely with little or no warmth expressed by her parents and relatives; she had no friendships with other children except for her brother Bertram.

However, her isolated existence did not cause her retreat into herself but, when on their holidays in Scotland, Beatrix and Bertram were able to explore the mysteries and delights of the local farms, woodlands and meadows whereby they would collect all manner of items to be later drawn and painted.

Beatrix Potter, however, did not enjoy the full independence of her characters, being tied to her parents until the age of forty seven when she married William Heelis.

In her later years as a sheep farmer and property owner, she left Beatrix Potter behind, but left a legacy of wonderful stories behind for generation to enjoy.