4 September: Peter Rabbit's Birthday

Beatrix Potter first told the story of Peter Rabbit on this date. Here are 10 things you might not know about her most famous character:

1. Peter rabbit lives with his widowed mother, Josephine and his three sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail. He has an uncle called Mr. Bouncer Bunny, and a cousin, Benjamin Bunny. Later on, Flopsy marries Benjamin and they have six little ones – the Flopsy Bunnies.
2. In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Peter is a naughty Rabbit who disobeys his mother’s orders to sneak into Mr. McGregor’s garden and eat his vegetables. As Mr. McGregor chases him away, he loses his jacket and shoes which McGregor uses to dress a scarecrow. He returns to get his clothes back in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, along with his cousin. This time they get captured by Mr McGregor’s Cat and have to be rescued by Bouncer, from whom they get a good telling off and a whipping.
3. Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit was based on her real life pet, a Belgian buck rabbit whose full name was Peter Piper. She described him as a very clever rabbit who was good at learning tricks and liked to lie in front of the fire, just like a cat. Potter even dedicated one of her personal editions of The Tale of Peter Rabbit to him. The inscription read "to poor old Peter Rabbit, who died on the 26th of January 1901. … An affectionate companion and a quiet friend.”
4. The story was first told in a letter to a five year old boy who was ill. His name was Noel Moore and he was the son of Annie Carter Moore, Potter’s friend and former governess. She wrote two more letters featuring stories about Squirrel Nutkin and Jeremy Fisher the Frog. It was Annie who suggested turning them in to children’s books.
5. Potter wanted the books to be small and easy for children to hold, but publishers wanted them to be bigger (so they could charge more for them). This was a deal breaker for Potter and led to rejections from six publishers. So she published it herself, ordering 250 copies which sold out within a few months.
6. One of Potter’s friends, Canon Rawnsley, tried to get publishers interested by re-writing the story in verse and submitting it with Potter’s drawings. It worked. Frederick Warne and Co agreed to publish the book, and what’s more, preferred Potter’s own text to the rhyming one.
7. Peter Rabbit was the first character to have a bunch of licensed products based on him – starting with a doll made by Potter for her editor’s niece. There were also games, figurines, wallpaper, blankets, and tea sets featuring him.
8. Potter drew the line at letting Disney make him into a movie, though. Whether this was because she wanted to control the rights or because she didn’t think her drawings were good enough for the big screen, nobody knows for sure.
9. That doesn’t mean Peter Rabbit never got to be a movie star. In 1971 he appeared in a ballet film, The Tales of Beatrix Potter. There have been several TV series, a stage play and an animated film in which peter is voiced by James Corden.
10. There is a series of UK 50p pieces that feature Peter and other Potter characters.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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