A
Beatrix Potter story written more than 100 years ago is to be
published for the first time, introducing a brand new character:
Kitty in Boots.
The
tale, of a gun-toting cat who leads a double life, was found
near-complete in an exercise book – and shows Beatrix
Potter at her darkest, says Gaby Wood
Doppelgängers
and transvestites, guns and gangsters, secret lives: these are not
the first things that come to mind when considering the work of
Beatrix Potter. Yet the creator of Peter Rabbit and Hunca-Munca once
wrote a story that featured all of them. The
Tale of Kitty in Boots was
written just before the outbreak of the First World War but never
published in Potter’s lifetime. Over 100 years later, Penguin
Random House will finally release what they describe as Potter’s
“24th Tale” – a book that may turn everything we think we know
about her on its head.
By
Gary Wood
