On the 4th September 1893, Beatrix Potter sent a 'picture letter' to Noel Moore, the sick son of her former governess, to cheer him up. 'My dear Noel', she wrote, 'I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter' Eight years later, undeterred by numerous refusals from publishers, she privately published an initial 250 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was an immediate success and she had another two hundred copies printed. By this point Frederick Warne was very interested and agreed to publish her book commercially, with the provision that the illustrations appeared in colour, which Beatrix Potter duly undertook. A phenomenal fifty thousand copies of the book had been sold by the end of 1903, and it has never been out of print since!

The enduring charm of Beatrix Potter's characters has ensured that her wonderful Tales are as popular today as they were over a hundred years ago. The delightful characters she created are known all over the world and have touched the lives of millions of people - after all, who hasn't grown up with Peter Rabbit and his friends?