Helen Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which was her first commercially published work in 1902. Her books, including 23 Tales, have sold more than 250 million copies. An entrepreneur, Potter was a pioneer of character merchandising. In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character.
Roald Dahl was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. Dahl has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".
Sophie Dahl is an English author and former fashion model. Her first novel, The Man with the Dancing Eyes, was published in 2003 followed by Playing With the Grown-ups in 2007. In 2009, she wrote Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, a cookery book which formed the basis for a six-part BBC Two series named The Delicious Miss Dahl. In 2011, she published her second cookery book From Season to Season. Her first children's book, Madame Badobedah, was released in 2019. She is the daughter of Tessa Dahl and Julian Holloway and the granddaughter of author Roald Dahl, actress Patricia Neal, and actor Stanley Holloway.
Beatrix Cadwalader Farrand was an American landscape gardener and landscape architect. Her career included commissions to design about 110 gardens for private residences, estates and country homes, public parks, botanic gardens, college campuses, and the White House. Only a few of her major works survive: Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden on Mount Desert, Maine, the restored Farm House Garden in Bar Harbor, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden, and elements of the campuses of Princeton, Yale, and Occidental.
Chantal Sophia "Tessa" Dahl is a British author and former actress. She is the daughter of British-Norwegian author Roald Dahl and American actress Patricia Neal.
The Twits is a 1980 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was first published by Jonathan Cape. The story features The Twits, a spiteful, idle, unkempt couple who continuously play nasty practical jokes on each other to amuse themselves, and exercise their devious wickedness on their pet monkeys.
Downe House School is a selective independent girls' boarding and day school in Cold Ash, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, for girls aged 11–18.
Roedean School is an independent boarding and day school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sussex Downs, on a cliff overlooking Brighton Marina and the English Channel. It is widely regarded as the "Eton College" of all-girls boarding schools in the United Kingdom.
Waterperry is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Waterperry with Thomley, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire and close to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire, England. It is beside the River Thame, about 7 miles (11 km) east of Oxford. The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin is partly Saxon and has notable medieval stained glass, sculptural memorials, Georgian box pews and memorial brasses. In 1961 the parish had a population of 161. On 1 April 1994 the parish was abolished and merged with Thomley to form "Waterperry with Thomley".
The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society.
Penelope Hobhouse MBE, née Chichester-Clark, is a British garden writer, designer, lecturer and television presenter.
Olive Margaret Willis was an English educationist and headmistress. She founded Downe House School and was its head for nearly forty years, from 1907 to 1946.
Valerie Finnis (1924–2006) was a well-known British photographer, lecturer, teacher and gardener.
Xenia Noelle Field MBE was a British county councillor, prison reformer, philanthropist, horticulturist and author.
Mary Rose Spiller was an English horticulturist and teacher who devoted her life to the dissemination of successful horticulture, particularly by women, in Britain. She wrote two gardening books: Growing Fruit (1980), and Weeds, Search and Destroy (1985).
Waterperry Gardens are gardens with a museum in the village of Waterperry, near Wheatley, east of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.
Pamela Schwerdt MBE was the joint head gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Garden from 1959 to 1990, and a pioneering horticulturalist.
Olivia Twenty Dahl was the oldest child of the author Roald Dahl and the American actress Patricia Neal. She died at the age of seven from encephalitis caused by measles, before a vaccine against the disease had been developed. Roald Dahl's books James and the Giant Peach (1961) and The BFG (1982) were dedicated to Olivia. As a result of her death, her father Roald became an advocate for vaccination and wrote the pamphlet "Measles: A Dangerous Illness" in 1988.
Grace Helen Ballard, also known as Grace Helen Wilson and born Grace Helen Ranken, was a British horticulturist known for her hellebore hybrids.
Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse is a Sky original made-for-television drama film inspired by the true story of a six-year-old Roald Dahl meeting his idol Beatrix Potter. It was written by Abigail Wilson and directed by David Kerr starring Dawn French as Beatrix Potter, Rob Brydon as William Heelis and Jessica Hynes as Sofie Dahl.
