The Tale of Beatrix Potter: A Biography

margaret lane

When Beatrix Potter died, few people knew the full story of her life. Margaret Lane's remarkable piece of literary detective work, originally published only three years after Beatrix's death, told her story for the first time.

Genres biographynonfictionhistoryartbiography memoirbritish literature20th centurychildrensautobiographynature

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1946

This edition

Format: 200 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2001 by Penguin Books, Limited (UK)
ISBN: 9780723246763
ASIN: 0723246769
Language: English

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Beatrix Potter

Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative childrens books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated th...

About the author

margaret lane

Margaret Winifred Lane (June 23, 1907 – February 14, 1994) was a British journalist, biographer and novelist, the author of more than two dozen books. She was the second wife of Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon.
She was the mother of writer Selina Hastings.

Lane was highly educated, attending St. Stephen's College and St. Hugh's College, Oxford.

After university, she worked as a reporter for the Daily Express from 1928 - 1931, and then as a special correspondent for the International News Service from 1931 - 1932. While there, she interviewed the gangster Al Capone.
From 1932 - 1938, she was a journalist for the Daily Mail, where she was the UK's highest paid woman journalist at the time.

Lane wrote two biographies of Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Beatrix Potter: a Biography in 1946, and The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter in 1978.
In 1984, the BBC produced a two-part television dramatisation of Potter's life based on Lane's books.

Lane wrote more than two dozen books, including novels, travelogues, and children's books.