Margaret Thatcher said that the best book on business is The Tale of Ginger & Pickles. Ginger is a yellow tom-cat and Pickles is a terrier. Together they operate a small general store that all the animals use. However, Ginger and Pickles extend credit to the customers. Tabitha Twitchit, who owns the competing general store, does not provide credit. In just a few pages, Beatrix Potter captures the essence of business, the nature of competition and consumer behavior. That’s impressive for a kid’s book.
I must admit I’ve never read Beatrix Potter as an adult but I was terrified of Mr. McGregor’s garden as a kid. I surprised myself by enjoying the biopic of Potter with the unlikely Renee Zellweger starring.
Beatrix Potter impresses me more and more, Jeff. There’s no sticky, gooey sentimentality in her work. Running a store is Hard Business and Potter captures it in just a few pages. I’ll have to find a copy of that Beatrix Potter biopic.
I don’t remember this one but when you combine her artwork and the story, she is hard to beat. She wrote the kind of book you loved having in your hands.
Exactly, Patti! A Beatrix Potter book is always well crafted and inviting. But her message is tough-minded and feisty. She’s unique.
I too don’t remember this one, but there are many of her books and I think I read only a handful. It was the water color illustrations I loved then and now. I’d pay a lot of money for a large-format coffee table book with all the watercolors in it, as well as the ones she did of her home and garden. Sadly, no such book has ever or probably will ever exist.
Count me in on a coffee table Beatrix Potter book, Rick. Maybe a small press will undertake the assignment.
We had a bunch of them for the girls and loved them as much as they did. I never saw this one, though. Maybe I’ll get it for my granddaughter when she’s old enough to enjoy it.
I’ve ordered the COMPLETE TALES OF BEATRIX POTTER, Bob. I’ve always admired her books, but GINGER & PICKLES really tickled me.
BTW, I knew Economics was simple.
Economics is simple, but Doing The Right Things is hard, Bob.
Whenever I see Potter’s artwork it transports me back to elementary school. I remember the weekly visit to our country school by the Book Mobile and some of my earliest memories of those visits is checking out her books. I’m very fond of the Beatrix Potter film that came out a few years ago. I hadn’t ever bothered to check out anything about the author and I came away from it very surprised, especially with her feelings on land and what she contributed to the British landscape.
I’ll be watching that Beatrix Potter movie in the next few days, Carl. Jeff Meyerson admires it, too.
I’ll be curious of your thoughts on it when you do.
I’ll be posting about that Beatrix Potter book next week, Carl.