Once, more than a hundred years ago, there was a girl called Helen Potter. When she was young she painted pictures of her many pets. She loved to go exploring in the countryside around her home and on holidays in Britain and discover things about nature, and she loved to paint what she saw.

When she was a young woman, Helen was fascinated by mushrooms and other types of fungus. She liked to paint beautiful pictures of them and learn about them. She learnt how to use a microscope to look very closely at her mushrooms and discover how they grew. Her paintings are so life-like that they’re used by scientists who study mushrooms.

Helen went on to write children’s stories and paint the pictures for them. This is what she’s most famous for. She used the money she made from these books to buy land in the Lake District of England so the wildlife she loved so much could be protected.

My favourite story is The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or the Roly-Poly Pudding, because it’s a bit scary, and because Tom Kitten found the hidden passageways in the house. Helen Beatrix Potter is best known as Beatrix Potter. She wrote about Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin and other furry and feathery friends.