Miss Potter....and friends

You won't find many movie reviews on this blog for the simple reason that I do not care much for movie watching--one of my biggest shortcomings, according to my dear children. And the movies I do watch are almost never of the cutting edge, just released variety. (My 15yo son cringed when he saw that I had begun a blog post inspired by my recent viewing of Miss Potter so I'm going to out him here: he watched it with me.)

As one who has long loved the writings and illustrations of Beatrix Potter, I was biased to like this film and I was not disappointed. The cast of characters, featuring Renee Zwelleger as Miss Potter and Ewan McGregor as Norman Warne, were wonderfully cast and charmingly portrayed. The story of Beatrix Potter's life is a warm, enchanting tale, though not without the taint of pain and sadness. And though I am quite a sop when it comes to watching movies, I didn't cry...until the credits began to roll at the end. My family looked at me in bewilderment so I tried to explain: Memories of all the hours I had spent enjoying The Tale of Peter Rabbit and all his woodland cohorts with my dear children had come flooding back to me.

Which makes me realize this post really isn't a review of the film Miss Potter, but rather a reminiscence of the beauty of her writing and illustrations, particularly as I enjoyed them with my dear children when they were young.

A biographer of scholar C.S. Lewis writes of how the transcendent beauty of Potter's illustrations, particularly in the work of Squirrel Nutkin was a formative influence in Lewis's life, one which sparked in him the feeling of desire. While I can't recall such a specific defining impact in my own life I do remember being drawn to the design of the small slate colored books and to the magical stories and beautiful watercolor illustrations they contained. Simply. Beautiful. And, Potter's lovely British turns of phrase was and is music to my ears.

When I was a young adult my interest in Potter's children stories was renewed when I purchased two binding-damaged collections of her works from the campus bookstore where I worked. I didn't have spare cash for much of anything in those days but I bought these two books and taped up the bindings. These are the books which I read to my children and which l sit on our bookshelf still, taped bindings intact.

To further indulge my love of Peter and his friends, I decorated my first-born's nursery with a Peter Rabbit and friends theme, complete with a large cross-stitched quilt (still hanging). We've a Beatrix Potter music box, cups, and dishes besides.

After I had explained to my family what memories had brought forth the tears my 15yo son remarked with a grin, "Now Mom is going to get out all the Beatrix Potter books and read them to us at lunch time." Well, what a good idea! It is said a really good children's story is one that can be enjoyed by adults as well as children, and the tales of Beatrix Potter fit that bill as far as I'm concerned. Why it wasn't until I was an adult that had the joy of laughing at the antics Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca when Tom Thumb tried to carve a plaster ham, or the silliness of Jemima Puddle Duck when she let a foxy gentleman help her find a place to hatch her eggs, or the predicament of Tom Kitten when he nearly ended up as the middle of a pudding, or ... And who can drink a cup of chamomile tea without thinking of Peter Rabbit's mischief and subsequent illness for which he was sent to bed without the bread and milk and blackberries which Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail enjoyed.