Miss Potter - film

I watched a film called Miss Potter last Sunday which starred Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor as Beatrix Potter and her publisher, Norman Warne. It was based on how she became published, strived to achieve more than her parents hoped for and became one of the best loved children's authors of all time.

I read a couple of her books when I was younger and had a couple of the animations on children's videos, but I wouldn't say I wasn't a fan. I found it on TV by accident as I skipped through the channels and decided to watch it as I wondered whether it would focus on her published works or more on her personal life.

It showed how she started making up stories and painting her characters from a young age and how she gained the support of a publisher who made books of her stories. She fell in love with one of the brothers of the publishers and became friends with his sister. Norman eventually proposes to her, but her parents don't want her marrying into 'trade', so refuse to give their blessing. They write to each other over the summer in the hope of keeping the love alive, but when Beatrix doesn't receive a letter and then one from his sister telling her Norman is ill, she rushes back to London only to be told he has died and she has missed the funeral.

Beatrix becomes depressed and will only communicate with her characters until she finds out her wealth and decides to move out from her parents house to a working farm where she spends her days learning about farming and writing about the characters she loves.

At the end of the film it mentioned that Beatrix did end up getting married, to her childhood sweetheart who was the estate agent she bought the farms from, but due to her age, she didn't have any children.

I thought it was definitely worth a watch, even though I thought it would focus more on her writing career rather then her personal life.