My Favourite Author – Beatrix Potter: A Guest Post by Sudesna Ghosh

Hello! So, this is the second post in 'My Favourite Author' series that I started last week. You can read the first guest post by Mithila HERE

Today, I'm so pleased to host Sudesna Ghosh, author of 'My Perfect Newyork Christmas, My Singapore Fling, and many others. She is an ardent animal lover and write lovely stories for children.

So, here it goes. A guest post by Sudesna ---

Every time I sit down to write, Beatrix Potter quote takes me to the end of my story…

'There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.' 

― BeatrixPotter

My addiction to books developed from an early age. My mother is a bookworm who loved taking me to the local library every weekend. While other children played outside or hung out in cliques in their school days, I stayed inside with my stacks of books, living alongside book characters that I admired.

I started my writing career with short stories. First, in elementary school while I was growing up in the United States, and then years later at The Telegraph newspaper where I was on the team that edited the children’s weekly supplement. 

While I have written some books for adults, writing stories for kids warms up a special part of my heart. Why? Well, I don’t like the idea of growing up so fun stories about childhood let me keep my nostalgia and innocence in a way. And also because I can’t stop thinking about my idol Beatrix Potter every time I write kidlit.

Her name makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Most of my childhood books are still in my house and hers are right up front so I can touch them, see them, devour them, whenever I need extra inspiration. 

'Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.'

This quote by Beatrix won me over when I read it years ago. This intelligent woman years before our time, knew how formal education didn’t determine a person’s talent or intelligence. 

Beatrix’s first artist models were her pet rabbits. Her first rabbit was Benjamin Bouncer. Benjamin was followed by a rabbit called Peter Piper, who performed tricks and stayed with her all the time. When I read this anecdote about my favourite author, I was quite pleased as I adore all animals and spend all my time with them as well. My late dog Goti and now my cats, keep me amused and I am rarely seen without them by my side.

Annie Moore, who was governess to Beatrix, stayed in her life for decades. In fact, one of Beatrix’s earliest stories was actually from a letter (with illustrations) sent to Annie Moore’s son. Publishers did not take on her story, leading the author to self-publish The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1901. So you see, self-publishing is not a new phenomenon at all.

Thanks to the book’s success, a publisher who had turned it down offered Beatrix a deal. Inspiration for aspiring authors that even famous writers may have to struggle in the beginning.

My first Beatrix Potter experience was with her book called The Roly-Poly Pudding. It has a mischievous mouse in it. And cats. Adorable cats wearing frocks and aprons and all that. This cat lady can visualise every page of that book. Not surprisingly, I wrote a little book about a cat expert and his cats and it was after I re-read The Roly-Poly Pudding for the hundredth time of my life.

*****

Sounds lovely, no? 

So, who is your favourite author? And why? Please share your thoughts.