I've been thinking about and working on The Cottage Tales for nearly ten years now. Book Six (The Tale of Applebeck Orchard) will be available shortly, and I've already written Book Seven, which will be published in September, 2010. Next spring, I'll be writing Book Eight, for publication in 2011. The eight books cover the years 1905-1913, eight years in the life of Beatrix Potter—eight tumultuous years, full of catastrophic loss and unimaginable gain.

I won't rehearse her story here—if you've been reading the Cottage Tales, I'm sure you know it very well by now. You know that Norman Warne died in 1905, shortly after he and Beatrix were engaged, and you know that she went forward with her plan to buy Hill Top Farm, in the little Lake District Village of Near Sawrey. You know that for the next eight years, she shuttled back and forth between London and the Lakes, trying to balance her life as a dutiful daughter caring for aging parents with her other two lives: her professional work as a popular children's author-illustrator, and her chosen life as a farmer and rural villager. And you know that she fell in love with a country lawyer, Willie Heelis, and married him in 1913—once again, over her parents' objections.

In The Tale of Castle Cottage (September 2011), I'll tell the story of Miss Potter's marriage (at last!) to Mr. Heelis, a largely fictional enterprise, but based as fully as possible on what we know of the event. And after that? Well, Miss Potter left her parents' London home and moved to the home of her heart, the little village of Near Sawrey. She left Hill Top Farm just as we see it today, and Mr. and Mrs. Willie Heelis moved up the hill to Castle Cottage, where they lived and loved as happily as anyone might wish for the next thirty years.

The Great War (1914-1918) was difficult for everyone, with many privations and shortages—especially shortages of labor—but the Heelises had each other and were happy. Mrs. Heelis worked hard to develop her land and herds. The situation eased after the war was over, and she began to buy more and more tracts of land. For the most part, once she became engrossed with her work as a farmer and landlord, her career as an author was over. In 1929, however, she agreed to write The Fairy Caravan for an American audience. It was published in England shortly afterward. It was quite a different book from her earlier work and not nearly as well received.

As a farmer, she was busy with her animals, especially her beloved Herdwick sheep, and over the years was engrossed with breeding and showing them, eventually becoming the president of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders' Association.

Beatrix and her parents were longtime friends of Canon Rawnsley, one of the founders of the National Trust, and both Beatrix and Willie Heelis were dedicated to the cause of saving the Lakes from development. After her parents and brother died (her mother lived until 1932), Beatrix continued to invest her substantial inheritance in land. It was her intention that not only the land should be preserved, but with it the uniquely traditional lifeways of the farmers and shepherds, together with the animals that supported that life.

Beatrix died at Castle Cottage on December 22, 1943. Her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the countryside near Sawrey. Upon Willie's death not long after, the National Trust received over 4,000 acres of beautiful Lakeland fields and fells, held for the preservation of the land and the benefit of all who would come after.

Beatrix Potter Heelis was a remarkable woman, deservedly famous for her charming children's stories and illustrations and for the breadth and depth of her artistic interests. A strong woman, filled with determination, she was true to her Victorian ideals and was at the same time far ahead of her time, in the conservation of land and habitat and the preservation of traditional arts, crafts, farming, and living. She will be remembered not only for her "little books" and her fine flocks of Herdwick sheep, but for her abiding love and preservation of the land and all its inhabitants.

For more reading by and about Beatrix Potter, check out Miss Potter's Bookshelf.