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A review by melcanread
The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter
5.0
The Tailor of Gloucester is one of those stories that I grew up surrounded by, because of the fact that I am a Gloucester girlie. I remember watching the World of Peter Rabbit and Friends TV show when I was a kid, and the Tailor of Gloucester was always the episode I gravitated the most towards.
The book itself is the epitome of Beatrix Potter whimsy, down to Simpkins' disdain for the Tailor and the Tailor's decision to let the mice out of their prisons. Her art, as always, is stunning, and is exactly how the city looks to this day (though, the kitchen the Tailor rented is now the Beatrix Potter shop in Gloucester.)
It was interesting to me how Potter put more emphasis on the Tailor rather than the mice, choosing to tell the story more from the Tailor's perspective, with honourable mentions to Simpkin's perspective, more so than the mice's perspective. This is in stark contrast to the TV adaptation, where you see more of the mice than you do the Tailor. This, I think, gives more voice to the original story, rather than her version of it. While we do, of course, see the mice at work, we're mostly following the Tailor and Simpkin, which does add to the magic of the coat being completed by an anonymous force rather than the mice.
Potter has a magical way of telling dark fairy tales, in a similar fashion to the Brothers Grimm and authors of old, and I think that's one of the things I love the most about her. She makes no attempt to hide the natural world from her stories, despite their childish and whimsical nature. Reminding you at every turn that it doesn't matter how many animals she writes about, they are just that: animals.
Overall, this is one of my all-time favourite Beatrix Potter tales, and a go-to comfort read.
The book itself is the epitome of Beatrix Potter whimsy, down to Simpkins' disdain for the Tailor and the Tailor's decision to let the mice out of their prisons. Her art, as always, is stunning, and is exactly how the city looks to this day (though, the kitchen the Tailor rented is now the Beatrix Potter shop in Gloucester.)
It was interesting to me how Potter put more emphasis on the Tailor rather than the mice, choosing to tell the story more from the Tailor's perspective, with honourable mentions to Simpkin's perspective, more so than the mice's perspective. This is in stark contrast to the TV adaptation, where you see more of the mice than you do the Tailor. This, I think, gives more voice to the original story, rather than her version of it. While we do, of course, see the mice at work, we're mostly following the Tailor and Simpkin, which does add to the magic of the coat being completed by an anonymous force rather than the mice.
Potter has a magical way of telling dark fairy tales, in a similar fashion to the Brothers Grimm and authors of old, and I think that's one of the things I love the most about her. She makes no attempt to hide the natural world from her stories, despite their childish and whimsical nature. Reminding you at every turn that it doesn't matter how many animals she writes about, they are just that: animals.
Overall, this is one of my all-time favourite Beatrix Potter tales, and a go-to comfort read.