Hidden Truth

In my book, I tell the story of the significance in my life of Beatrix Potter’s book, ‘The Fierce Bad Rabbit’. It was the book read to me by my father, and it’s one of the books that I intend to pass on to my children’s children.

But stories are not just to be read or passed on, they are to be experienced. So, when my children were young, I took them to Beatrix Potter’s house.

We saw the desk where she had written her stories and painted her characters. We climbed the stairs down which the rat Samuel Whiskers had scuttled to steal a rolling pin. We pushed through the small gate to find the rhubarb patch where Jemima Puddle-Duck had laid her eggs.

Why did we do this? Because I wanted the stories to become accessible, emotional, and memorable. I wanted my children to enter these stories, to hear the bleating of sheep in the surrounding fields, and to feel the wind in their hair.

I wanted them to understand that stories are birthed in our homes, our mundane experiences, and our rich imaginations. 

I wanted them to learn the magic and craft of storytelling, and so, in their turn, become storytellers.

May I invite you to do the same – to open the gate into the world of imagination – and discover how to pass on something of value to the next generation.

Robert