Beatrix Potter.....then and now

  
 
A few nights ago, I came across a site which has free MP3 downloads for children's books but of course when I was little, things weren't so high tech!

One of my favourite writers is Beatrix Potter.  When I was very small  I remember my mother coming home with a pink coloured 44 rmp vinyl.  This is one of the songs I remember. I first heard this song when I was about 7 yrs old. It really must have made an impression!

'We're a happy family
Yes a happy family
And we live by the foot
Of a big Fir Tree

Flopsy and Mopsy
How could they be cuter
Funny little cotton tail....
And whoops! there's Peter!


Beatrix Potter was born on 28 July 1866 in South Kensington, London. She lived a lonely life at home, being educated by a governess and had little contact with other people. She had many animals which she kept as pets, studying them and making drawings.

If anyone here is a Beatrix Potter fan, you would be able to guess what animals she had!

When she was in her teens, her parents would take her for regular holiday trips to Scotland and the Lake District.  While in the Lake District, she made many sketches of the animals which she saw around her like the squirrels and the rabbits.

A friend of the family encouraged her to keep drawing and when she got back to London, she made greeting cards of her pictures and started on her first book.  In 1902, her first book ie 'The tale of Peter Rabbit' was published.

Beatrix Potter married William Heelis, a solicitor in Hawkshead, in 1913. Then started the next stage in her life, being a Lakeland farmer, which lasted for 30 years. The office of William Heelis is now the National Trust's 'Beatrix Potter Gallery'.

Potter died on 22 December 1943 and left fourteen farms and 4000 acres of land to the National Trust, together with her flocks of Herdwick sheep.
 

I found this wonderful site which enables children to listen to the books being read. It uses Real Audio.


http://wiredforbooks.org/kids.htm


You can also send Beatrix Potter cards from this site here:


http://www.peterrabbit.com/potters-world.asp