Over the Hills and Far Away by Matthew Dennison

Her parents tried to manage her life even as she gained professional success. She illustrated tales about Peter and three other anthropomorphic rabbits with pen-and-ink drawings that eventually made their way into her books.

Her career as a children’s author began accidentally, when she was 27, with letters to the bedridden son of one of her former governesses. Intent on becoming a botanical illustrator, Potter obsessively honed her skills as an artist and naturalist, interests covered thoroughly in Linda Lear’s recent biography. “Whether her parents were responsible for this attitude, or simply sought to manipulate it, is unclear,” Dennison writes. By the time she was a teenager, she experienced recurring illnesses and began to think of herself as an invalid. Born into a well-to-do British family, Potter’s world “was one of conformities and prohibitions.” Raised in isolation from other children by domineering parents, her youthful companions were her brother and their many beloved pets. Dennison ( Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West, 2015, etc.) draws largely on Potter’s children’s stories, journals, and letters to document her personal and artistic development, resulting in a narrowly focused biography that offers little perspective beyond the subject’s own. With 40 million copies sold since its publication in 1902, The Tale of Peter Rabbit has made Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) world-famous. The life of the prolific children’s author was circumscribed, even by Victorian standards.

Over the Hills and Far Away by Matthew Dennison