Limelight: The tale of a rabbit By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Were she to come back to life today, what would she think of us? In our part of the world, the majority of women still suffer the absolute male delusion of superiority. Beatrix Potter knew such a world over 100 years ago, in Victorian England, where she was relegated to an inferior role in her home and society. She was able to overcome all barriers, defy traditions, distinguish herself in the world of science, art and business. Moreover, she left a priceless legacy of enchanting tales that have evoked the laughter of children and the applause of adults for more than a century. A shy and lonely child, she grew to become the custodian of the little creatures, bouncing gleefully in the woods around her summer home. She envied them their freedom, the motion in the mountain, the serenity of the lakes, the blue of the heavens unhindered in the vast, void air. She kept several pets, frogs, newts, two rabbits and even a bat. It was the image of a mischievous little rabbit that was the source of her inspiration. When the son of a former governess was sick, Beatrix Potter wrote him a letter in the form of a story, beginning with the famous names, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter. It was another eight years before Peter would see the light of day as a published book. Peter rabbit became a hero, and Beatrix Potter's career as a children's storyteller was launched. The Tale of Peter Rabbit appeared in 1902, and has since sold more than 151 million copies in 35 languages. Beatrix created a delightful menagerie of Peter's cousins, friends, and neighbours, who all found new life in her sketches and stories. Benjamin Bunny, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddleduck, Mrs Tiggy Winkle, and a host of other amiable little creatures that capture every child's heart, and made famous the simple animals of the English countryside. Her sketches came from the tiny friends she made in real life. Her whimsical drawings are considered valuable works of art, adorning her wondrous tales. Today, Beatrix Potter herself comes to life on the big screen, in a delectable biopic Miss. Potter, directed by Australian Chris Noonan ( Babe 1995), and touchingly rendered by Oscar winner Renée Zellwegger. The story of her sheltered life, tragic love, outstanding work and ultimate triumph, leaves you with a lump in your throat, a smile on your lips and faith in your heart. Born into affluence in fashionable Kensington in 1866, Potter's overprotective parents discouraged friendships with other children. They left her mostly in the care of nurses and governesses who taught her reading, writing, music, and art. Younger brother Bertram was sent off to school, while she stayed home finding solace in the company of nature and her little creatures. The family rented Wray Castle, in Sawyer, by the shores of Windermere, at England's famous Lake District. She and her brother explored the woods and fields; she sketched and painted the landscape, watched the scurrying squirrels and the greedy rabbits. Her parents entertained many prominent figures, among them Hardwicke Rawnsley, vicar of Wray Church, who greatly encouraged her art work. His concern for the effects of the industry and tourism on the natural beauty of the Lake District had a lasting effect on her. In later years, as the sale of her books made her a wealthy woman, Potter bought Hill Top Farm in Sawyer, and continued to buy farm after farm, to preserve the land from industrial development. On her death she bequeathed Hill Top Farm to the British National Trust, together with 14 other farms as well as 4,000 acres of land, thus becoming history's first woman conservationist. Hill Top Farm was opened to the public in 1946, three years after her passing, and is now the most visited literary shrine in the Lake District. Though childless, Potter's life was not without a great love story. Having refused a string of upper class suitors, she was 36 when she first opened her heart to ardent love. When The Tale of Peter Rabbit was finally accepted for publication by Frederick Warne & Company, Potter fell in love with her publisher's younger brother, Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor). The family discouraged union with a man socially beneath her, who worked for his living. Defiant, Potter became engaged to Norman, but he tragically died of leukaemia before the wedding. After Warne's death, Potter moved to her beloved Hill Top Farm, and there, the unspoiled beauty and gentleness of the environment melted her sorrow. At age 47, she married her solicitor William Heelis, and lived peacefully surrounded by her pets and her beloved hedgehog, naturally named Mrs Tiggy Winkle. Due to poor eyesight, Potter's writing diminished in 1920. By then she had filled 23 books with her bunnies and squirrels and other little companions. For the next 30 years she devoted herself to being a gentlewoman farmer and a real estate investor. There was much more to Potter than sketching bunnies and recounting their adventures. Potter made numerous drawings of lichens and fungi, and showed that algae and fungi belong to the same family. Although rejected as a student at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew because she was a female, she became widely respected throughout England as an expert on fungi. In 1897, her paper on the germination of spores was presented to The Linnaean Society by an uncle because women were banned from attending. The Linnaean Society issued a posthumous apology in 1997. Miss. Potter is a passionate film honouring her whimsical art, her enchanting character, her versatile career, as well as her courageous stand against her repressive society, which sadly exists arund the world to this very day. Beatrix Potter attended no academic institution, but achieved great knowledge by keenly observing nature. She should be an inspiration to all, as we gaze at the faces of innocent children charmed by her vision of nature's mini creatures. Even the tale of a naughty little rabbit can procure a place in history. She makes us proud. If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? Mary Astell (1668--1731)
