All Creatures Great and Small

There was a Potter who never wielded a wand but who was, nonetheless, very good at creating magic.

The other Potter

Tots to Teens
By DAPHNE LEE

I’VE been re-reading all my favourite Beatrix Potter stories. They’re all about animals that are very like humans in their habits (although they are also quite true to their various animal natures).

It was the sight of a greedy friend of mine tucking into a Tau Sar Pau that prompted this re-reading: he reminded me of Potter’s Little Pig Robinson, who did so love his cakes and crumpets!

The tale of this little pig was inspired by Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat. In that brilliant piece of classic nonsense, an owl and cat are very much in love. They sail away together in a pea-green boat with “some honey and plenty of money, wrapped up in a five-pound note”. A year and a half later, they come to “the land where the Bong tree grows” and meet a piggy-wig “with a ring at the end of his nose”.

This pig, it turns out, is Robinson. Or rather, Potter read the poem and, so it appears, was inspired to write a prequel of sorts.

In The Tale of Little Pig Robinson, readers learn how the piggy-wig came to live in the land of the Bong tree.

It seems Robinson and the cat were friends way before the feline and his elegant feathered friend paid a shilling for his silver ring. In fact, I think Robinson should not have accepted a penny for his trinket since, according to Potter, he would have ended up on a plate, drizzled with applesauce, if not for the enterprising and wily cat.

This story was the last Potter published. It’s one of two starring pigs, the other being The Tale of Pigling Bland. Pigling Bland narrowly escapes being eaten. He is pignapped by Tom Piperson but is obliging enough to do some housekeeping for the thief. He then meets a fellow captive, a “lovely little black Berkshire pig” called Pig-Wig, who cheerfully informs him that she’s been stolen in order to be turned into bacon and ham!

Of course, Pigling Bland, moved by pity and love, helps Pig-Wig escape. The last we see of the pair, they are dancing happily “over the hills and far away”. Potter was obviously a romantic.

Mrs Tittlemouse, Squirrel Nutkin, and the two bad mice, Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb, have already been mentioned several times in this column – Potter created some really charming mice!

I have a new favourite Potter tale (it used to be The Tailor of Gloucester). It is The Tale of Ginger and Pickles. Ginger and Pickles are a cat and dog that keep a village shop. Very popular it is too, as it sells every thing, and the owners give unlimited credit.

However, this proves to be the shop’s undoing. Customers pour in despite fearing for their lives (Ginger admits that the mice who patronise the shop make his mouth water), but they don’t pay for anything. Pretty soon, Ginger and Pickles have to start eating their own goods, and Pickles cannot afford a dog license!

Children love Potter because her animal characters are adorable in their frock coats and breeches, petticoats and bonnets, but adult readers appreciate Potter’s irony and wit. And even my five-year-old sees the humour of a pig buying groceries in a store full of porcine sausages and hams.

You can buy The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter (Frederick Warne Publishers, 400 pages, ISBN: 978-0723258049) comprising the author’s 23 tales (including two collections of nursery rhymes), but it is a very large and heavy book that you had better not drop on your foot.

I prefer the small hardcover editions – one tale per book. You can sometimes find some titles at Payless Books outlets, but they are also available brand new at most bookstores as Potter continues to be in print 106 years after she was first published.

This site lists all of Potter's tales and various compilations and editions of her books.