When Lorna said that she’d like to have me as a guest for a Pet Peeve Thursday, I knew exactly what I’d write about: the pet peeve that sparked the central mystery plot in my upcoming book The Tale of Oat Cake Crag, the seventh in the eight-book series,
The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. The book is set in 1911 in the Lake District of England, where children’s author-illustrator Beatrix Potter owned a farm and went to escape from the noise and bustle of London.
The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. The book is set in 1911 in the Lake District of England, where children’s author-illustrator Beatrix Potter owned a farm and went to escape from the noise and bustle of London.
But in late 1911, something started bugging Beatrix and the other villagers in the Land Between the Lakes. (True story. This really happened. I am not making it up.) The irritant was an airplane. An experimental hydroplane named the Water Bird, the first of its kind in England. The Water Bird made one heckuva racket.
“A beastly fly-swimming spluttering aeroplane careering up & down over Windermere,” Beatrix wrote in a complaining letter to her friend Millie. “It makes a noise like 10 million bluebottles. . . . It has been buzzing up & down for hours today, and it has already caused a horse to bolt & smashed a tradesman’s cart.”
Now, you and I live in a modern world that’s filled with cell phones ringing and TVs blaring and trucks with illegal mufflers (my own pet peeve), so one airplane more or less probably doesn’t make much of a difference to us. But imagine that you had come to the country to enjoy the songs of birds and the bleating of sheep. Wouldn’t you be peeved if the rural peace and quiet was broken by what sounded to like a steam threshing machine flying buzzing over your head all day long? And what was worse, a second airplane was in the works. In fact, an airplane factory was being built on the rustic shore of idyllic Windermere, the most beautiful lake in England.
Well, Beatrix Potter was peeved. More than that, she was angry. But she didn’t just complain about it. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work. She collected signatures, wrote letters to magazines and to The Times, and petitioned the Home Secretary to do something about the nuisance. And--thanks in part to her efforts--something actually did get done. By the end of 1912, the airplane factory was blown away in a storm and the Water Bird was wrecked.
I loved this story about how one woman’s pet peeve sparked a revolt against the inappropriate intrusion of technology into a “place of rest and peace.” So I wove the tale into a fanciful mystery about the development of Britain’s first hydroplane, the Water Bird. The story also involves a teenaged dragon who sees his chance to make his mark on history and an owl who doesn’t much like that airplane, either. (You didn’t think that airplane factory actually got blown away by the wind, did you?) Oh, and it also features Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, who happened to love airplanes.
And of course, Miss Potter, whose pet peeve started the whole thing.
If you’d like to enter our drawing for a copy of The Tale of Oat Cake Crag, go here.
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Susan Wittig Albert writes the bestselling China Bayles mysteries, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter mysteries, and the Robin Paige Victorian/Edwardian mysteries written with her husband, Bill Albert. Click here to heck out her website. Catch Susan's Lifescapes blog, too
Susan, I am always fascinated by the research that goes into these tales. This is a great story, and yes, I can imagine what a stir it must have caused at the time. Ms. Potter was a strong woman, and I love that we get this real-life glimpse of her. Who would have thought that reading Peter Rabbit> It's valuable to know the story behind the story. Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story. I'm looking forward to your new book.
ReplyDeleteI had to smile: got a FB alert from a friend who wanted me to know about Air Force training flights over northern NM, where we have a house. Same durn thing that Beatrix was complaining about 100 years ago! I've wondered whether her complaint might have been among the first documented instances of noise pollution.
ReplyDeleteI'll always regret that we drove past Potter's cottage and decided we didn't have time to stop. I don't blame her a bit; such lovely countryside, which of course now is overrun with tourists.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the days after 9/11 when no planes could fly. It was eerily quiet even here in the country because we're usually on the flight path to the airport in Binghamton, NY.
Noise is one of my pet peeves in life, too. Not so much airplanes in my stretch of the middle, but loud traffic and nuisance barking from outdoor dogs. Still, my biggest complaint is chemical use -had a houseful of malathion last night while I was gone because the town manager can't be bothered to call when he's going to spray. Don't get me on that soapbox! Must go find some more peevers to come over here. ;)
ReplyDeleteRural, re: those tourists. If BP were alive today, WE would be her pet peeve. For her sake, I'm glad that the Potter Frenzy did not begin until after her death in 1943--did not really begin, in fact, until the 1970s, when tourism became a growth industry for Britain and the National Trust. She would absolutely hate to see all those buses parked along "her" narrow lanes and hear the blare of auto horns. She treasured the quiet, the remoteness.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I have to join Susan Ideus who said, I am always fascinated by the research that goes into these tales."
ReplyDeleteI think the research would be one of the most fascinating parts of writing a book.
I have read all of the China series to date and the first Dahlia. I have not read the B. Potter series yet but have ordered the first 3 books from my library.
The research is a LOT easier than it used to be, Lindy. When Bill and I wrote the Robin Paige mysteries (we started that series in 1994), we had no Internet access (that didn't happen until 1998) and most of our research materials had to come from the Univ. Texas library (hard to get to, impossible to park, a pain to check out books, etc.). Or we had to haul them from England, on our visits. It's a wonder those books got written at all!
ReplyDeleteNow, it's much easier. I can order books on the Internet and use the many available websites. It's a pleasure.
I agree with Susan about research. I read 97 years' worth of microfilmed newspapers to write my Wyoming centennial book. Now I can just boot up my computer.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest pet peeve is that some people--family members included--have no idea how much work: blood, sweat and tears go into writing novels, and interrupt in the middle of a muse or important research session.
Really interesting back story! Research is something that can really make a book come alive and feel authentic.
ReplyDeleteI still dislike airplanes because there are too many of them flying over our house, with their noise and their crummy smells!
ReplyDeleteMorgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
We live in the country for the same reasons as Ms. Potter the peace and quite. My pet peeve is not airplanes, we don't get that many. My pet peeve is the people who target practice with their rifles and semi-automatics, even after dark. My dogs go crazy.
ReplyDelete