Behind the Story: A Sleepy Interview with Beatrix Potter
- Jessika Downes-Gossl
- Mar 18
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 21
I have always loved history. But my love of history comes with a caveat - I like my history to be immersive and enchanting. Dry recitations of dates and events have never interested me. I want to feel as though I’ve stepped into the past, experiencing it first hand rather than simply reading about it.
Now, I know what you might be thinking; what does “exciting and immersive” history have to do with a bedtime story? But I promise you, it has everything to do with it.
I’ve long been fascinated by Beatrix Potter, not just by her beloved stories and charming illustrations, but by the woman herself. Her accomplishments are remarkable, not just for a woman of her time, but for anyone, in any era. She had a dream, and she pursued it relentlessly, despite the obstacles, the closed doors, and the insistence that she give up. Beatrix achieved greatness on her own terms. And if I could step back in time and share a cup of tea with anyone from history, she’d certainly be high on my list.
But this sleep story isn’t just a list of facts about Beatrix Potter. You won’t find a boring recounting of her achievements, book sales, or literary milestones. That wouldn’t be very soothing, would it?
Instead, A Sleepy Interview with Beatrix Potter invites you to step into a world where history and fiction meet. You arrive at her picturesque farm in the Lake District to conduct a gentle, dreamlike interview. The rolling hills stretch before you, the air carries the wondrous scent of wildflowers, and the occasional baa of Herdwick sheep drifts through the air.
Though the interview itself is imagined, the historical details are real. Many of Beatrix Potter’s words in this story? They are words she truly spoke. The descriptions of her home and vegetable garden? They are drawn from history. Even the way she obtained her farm and her lasting legacy - leaving her land to the National Trust so that it remains preserved and untouched by developers - are written into the story with care and accuracy.
Throughout the tale, Beatrix speaks to you in her own words:
“The flowers love the house, they try to come in, but nothing is more sweet than the old pink cabbage rose that peeps at the small paned windows.”
(A letter Beatrix wrote to her friend, Bertha Mahony Miller in 1940)
“I have never understood the secret of Peter’s perennial charm. Perhaps it is because he and his little friends keep on their way busily absorbed with their own doings.”
“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”
These are not just lines of dialogue, I’ve carefully selected real words from Beatrix’s life to make this story as authentic as possible.
The result is a bedtime story designed to transport you. To soothe you. To carry you away to a gentler time and place, where history whispers rather than lectures, and where imagination and reality amalgamate.
I hope you enjoy this first installment of what I hope will become a growing collection of Sleepy Interviews; gentle conversations with remarkable figures from history, spun into dreamy bedtime stories.
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