amandaonwriting:

Advice from authors to their fans

Part of a letter from Beatrix Potter to a young fan who had written to request that Potter write her pet rabbit Fluffy into a story:

My Dear Phyllis,

You have written me such a dear little letter about Fluffy, I feel quite sad to disappoint you – I have begun another book about the fox! If I can do another book that Fluffy can come into – I promise to… You don’t know what heaps of letters I get from all over the world, and so many of them want a book about some special animal. There was a letter lately from a child in Wales who wants a book about a crocodile called Amelia! That I cannot stand! Then there is a small boy in Ireland who wants to know if Jeremy Fisher ever got married, and two want moles, & another wants a donkey named Salome, & another wants a horse book, and another wants hens, & another wants elephants – poor Miss Potter! Fluffy is a very reasonable request by comparison….”

[via The Daily Mail]

You guys have no idea how deep my obsession with Beatrix Potter ran when I was a kid.  I collected all of the books and the porcelain figurines like it was my job.  I jokingly tell people if I ever have a daughter I will name her Beatrix.  It is not, in fact, a joke.