THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER By Beatrix Potter : FROM THE AUTHORS OF BOOKS LIKE : The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Complete Tales, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, The Tailor of Gloucester, The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse, Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding,

📖 The Scoop

ABOUT THE BOOK :The Tailor of Gloucester is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, privately printed by the author in 1902, and published in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1903. The story is about a tailor whose work on a waistcoat is finished by the grateful mice he rescues from his cat and was based on a real world incident involving a tailor and his assistants. For years, Potter declared that of all her books it was her personal favourite.

In the summer of 1901, Potter was working on The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, but took time to develop a tale about a poor tailor she heard in the Gloucestershire home of her cousin Caroline Hutton probably in 1897. The tale was finished by Christmas 1901, and given as a Christmas present to ten-year-old Freda Moore, the daughter of her former governess.

The tale was based on a real world incident involving John Prichard (1877–1934), a Gloucester tailor commissioned to make a suit for the new mayor. He returned to his shop on a Monday morning to find the suit completed except for one buttonhole. A note attached read, "No more twist". His assistants had finished the coat in the night, but Prichard encouraged a fiction that fairies had done the work and the incident became a local legend. Although Prichard was a contemporary of Potter's (he was about eleven years her junior and in his twenties when the incident took place), Potter's tailor is shown as "a little old man in spectacles, with a pinched face, old crooked fingers," and the action of The Tailor of Gloucester takes place in the 18th century.

Potter sketched the Gloucester street where the tailor's shop stood as well as cottage interiors, crockery, and furniture. The son of Hutton's coachman posed as a model for the tailor. In Chelsea, Potter was allowed to sketch the interior of a tailor's shop to whose proprietor she would later send a copy. She visited the costume department at the South Kensington Museum to refine her illustrations of 18th century dress.

Potter later borrowed Freda Moore's gift copy, revised the work, and privately printed the tale in December 1902. She marketed the book among family and friends and sent a copy to her publisher who made numerous cuts in both text and illustrations for the trade edition, chiefly among the tale's many nursery rhymes.

FROM THE AUTHORS OF BOOKS LIKE :

1.      The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Complete Tales, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle

2.      The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

3.      The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit

4.      The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck

5.      The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher

6.      The Tale of Tom Kitten

7.      The Tale of Two Bad Mice

8.      The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

9.      The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

10.  The Tailor of Gloucester

11.  The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

12.  Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales

13.  The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding

14.  The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes

15.  The Story of Miss Moppet

16.  The Tale of Ginger and Pickles

17.  The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse

18.  The Tale of Mr. Tod

19.    The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit

20.    The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan

21.    The Tale of Pigling Bland: The original and authorized edition

22.    Beatrix Potter Illustrated Collection

23.    A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories

24.    Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes

25.    Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

26.    Tales of Peter Rabbit and His Friends

27.    The Tale of Little Pig Robinson

28.    A Beatrix Potter Treasury

ABOUT THE AUTHOR : Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who is best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit.

Born into a wealthy household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets, and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developed a love of landscape, flora, and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Because she was a woman, her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology.

In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit and became secretly engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne, causing a breach with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Warne died before the wedding.

Potter eventually published 24 children's books, the most recent being The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots (2016), and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time.

In her forties, she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. Potter died in 1943 and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers.

Potter's books continue to sell well throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in various formats, including a ballet, films, and in animation.

Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels / Fantasy (fancy, right?)