Renee Zellweger is portraying Beatrix Potter in a movie currently filming in England (I have to wonder if Kate Winslet was their first choice). The Independent has taken the opportunity to write up a small biography of the children’s author, with a little emphasis on what the film may gloss over for the sake of Hollywood. Potter kept a coded diary until she was 30; it was deciphered many years after her death. She was brought up by governesses in a wealthy family and took comfort in pets and art. A foray into botany was cut short because she wasn’t male. Peter Rabbit was born in a letter to a former governess’ son. Self published at first, Potter achieved financial independence and invested in property. The Independent says “it was Beatrix Potter who invented merchandising” as she suggested that her publisher market Peter Rabbit dolls, wallpaper, and games. When her eyesight worsened she took up sheep farming. She willed most of her property to England’s National Trust and you can visit her home where certain surroundings may feel familiar, as if they’d come out of the watercolors of a tiny book.