Unfinished business

When we visited Hill Top on Thursday, the National Trust guide explained that of all the Beatrix Potter books, it was The Tale of Samuel Whiskers that was probably most closely connected to the house itself, which is why Martha decided she wanted to read it. We tried quite a few Cumbrian bookshops but without success, so today - back in Edinburgh - I bought a copy in Waterstone's.

Beatrix Potter occupies a special place in my affections. Normally I run a mile from what I scornfully describe as smug, complacent middle-class children's fiction. But Beatrix Potter isn't like that, there's something uncompromising about her writing style that I love. Basically, she had me at the first sentence from The Tailor of Gloucester:

IN the time of swords and periwigs 
and full-skirted coats with flowered 
lappets when gentlemen wore ruffles, 
and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy 
and taffeta there lived a tailor in 
Gloucester.