The Potomac Village Garden Club and Friends of the Library, Potomac Chapter are co-sponsoring a Book and Author Event with noted biographer Linda Lear. Linda will give a presentation titled “Beatrix Potter’s Gardens: From Imagination to Preservation” about the famous children’s author and illustrator’s interest in botany and nature.

The talk, drawing on Linda’s book, Beatrix Potter, A Life in Nature, will be Tuesday, April 25, 7 pm in the Library’s Community Room. Light refreshments will follow. Linda will sign previously purchased books.

The book explores a little-known side of Potter, known especially for her stories and depictions of Peter Rabbit. Linda Lear explains, “While I was on book tour in England in 1999, I discovered her botanical illustrations and collateral interest in mycological science. I realized there was much more to this Victorian children’s writer than I ever imagined, and children’s books were only the beginning.”

Linda’s biography of Potter won the Lakeland Book of the Year prize in 2007, the most prestigious of England’s regional literary prizes; it was the first time the award ever was to an American writer. James Rebanks, author of the acclaimed A Shepherd’s Life, has written a new forward for a 2016 reprinting of Linda’s book.

As a wealthy Victorian, Beatrix Potter endured enormous obstacles as a woman who wanted to find something useful to do with her life. Ultimately she gave the world not only imaginative tales of memorable animals, like Peter Rabbit and Jeremy Fisher, which have shaped our childhood vision of nature, but also many exquisite paintings of the natural world.

Linda has lectured widely in the U.S. and U.K., including at Brookside Gardens and at a Smithsonian Associates program. She recently appeared on PBS’s American Experience featuring the life of Rachel Carson, another remarkable naturalist about whom Lear has written. Learn more about her at www.lindalear.com and be sure to come hear her talk.