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1. Beginnings

Episode 1 of 5

Beatrix Potter was brought up in Kensington but found creative inspiration in the "North Country". Read by Lindsay Duncan.

It's November 1918. A woman is looking for something in a cornfield.

This is Mrs William Heelis, née Beatrix Potter. She is 52, happily married and a successful farmer.

Potter was "emotionally rooted" in the Lake District and farm life appealed to her. She had worked hard to shed the outward vestiges of her Kensington upbringing and her roots were in the "North Country".

These were the landscapes which nurtured her creative imagination.

Linda Lear’s biography of the 20th century's most-beloved children's writer and creator of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter.

Abridged in five parts by Alison Joseph

Read by Lindsay Duncan.

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2006.

15 minutes

On radio

Next Monday 08:30
BBC Radio 4 Extra

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2. Peter and Jeremy

See all episodes from Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear

Broadcasts

  • Mon 25 Jul 2016 14:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 26 Jul 2016 02:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Next Monday 08:30
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  • Next Monday 13:30
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  • Next Monday 19:30
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  • Next Tuesday 03:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra