Inspired by books

 

Squirrel mania!

As children, my sister and I had a lot of the Beatrix Potter books and two stick out as being my favourites - Mrs Tiggywinkle and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. I definitely think these two stories inspired my love of squirrels and hedgehogs.

As a sixth former studying geography I went on a field trip to the Lake District and on one day we did climb Cat Bells which appears in many of the backgrounds of Potter's books. We sadly didn't go to any  Beatrix Potter specific locations (and yes even at 17 I was pretty upset we didn't do anything kidlit related - no hunting Swallows and Amazons, or playing Picts and Martyrs either!).

Just recently however I did get to go to Brownsea Island in Dorset to see the wild red squirrels there - and it was wonderful. I didn't want to get my hopes up too high in advance of our trip as you can never predict wild animals but within seconds of being in the woodland we were seeing red squirrels foraging, eating, hiding nuts for the winter and just playing. The were so comical and so much more delicate than the grey squirrels we see daily.

Since getting home again I've re-read Squirrel Nutkin and I am slightly bemused as to why it was my favourite Beatrix Potter story as it is decidedly odd and a little bit cruel. I can only assume that it was the pictures that I liked rather than the riddles. Or perhaps it was Nutkin's rebellious streak... After watching the busy squirrels on Brownsea it becomes clear that Potter definitely spent time watching squirrels before writing and illustrating the book as their mannerisms in real life matched the book wonderfully.

None of the squirrels we saw had parts of their tail missing so I can only surmise that subsequent generations have learned from Nutkin and either bring peace offerings to any owls on Brownsea, or as is more likely - avoid them entirely!