So, instead of a career in science, Beatrix Potter wrote books for chidren, and illustrated them herself. (“To illustrate” a book means to draw pictures or take photographs for it.) You probably know some of these books, because they have been translated into many other languages. The English names for some of them are:

　　The Tale of Peter Rabbit

　　The Tale of Tom Kitten

　　The Tale of Mrs Tiggiwinkle.

　　The pictures in these books show how carefully Beatrix Potter observed animals – what they look like, what they do, how they move. If real rabbits wore little blue jackets, they would look just like her pictures of Peter Rabbit. But she was not sentimental about animals. People kill and eat animals. In the natural world, animals hunt and kill other animals. Farmers keep animals for food, not because they look pretty. So, in her books, Peter Rabbit’s father is put in a pie by Mrs McGregor. Mr Jeremy Fisher (a frog) is swallowed by a fish. Pigs are sent to market to be sold and slaughtered. Some people today do not like this side of Beatrix Potter’s stories. They say that children who read the stories will be frightened or upset. I think children prefer to be told the truth about the world.

　　By the time she was in her 40s, Beatrix Potter was beginning to earn money from her books. She bought a farm in the Lake District, and then another and another. She worked hard as a farmer, and kept pigs and sheep. In fact she became an expert on Herdwick sheep – a special, very ugly breed of sheep that is found in the Lake District and nowhere else. She cared passionately about the Lake District and the need to preserve its natural beauty.

　　When she died, in 1943, she left all her properties in the Lake District to the National Trust. The National Trust is an organisation which tries to preserve special landscapes and buildings all over England and Wales. It owns a lot of land in the Lake District, and makes sure that the traditional character of the area is maintained. And that is how, thanks to Peter Rabbit, the Lake District is still a beautiful and unspoilt part of England.

　　Incidentally, people tell me that schools in Japan use Beatrix Potter’s books to teach children English. Is this really true? Can my Japanese listeners please leave comments on the website, or send me an e-mail?