It works for books, too

    As I mentioned over the way, I've recently joined Instagram, and it's great for a quick snap and a brief comment on current reading or something I've just acquired, say.

   Yesterday I posted this picture of Linda Lear's biography Beatrix Potter: The extraordinary life of a Victorian genius which I'm greatly enjoying. I've known of the book for some time, but it was James Rebanks' mention of it in The Shepherd's Life which prompted me to buy it, as, in later life Miss Potter - by then Mrs. Heelis - was of course a noted breeder of Herdwick sheep.

    I'm still on the early chapters covering her youth, and always interested in the genesis of creativity, I noted the passage on her childhood reading (which included " 'Miss Edgeworth and Scott's novels' ") which culminates, " ... this rich diet of art and literature contributed to a lifelong delight in rhythm, cadence, wordplay, humour, dialect and dialogue: all nourishment for her imagination and the creation of her own literary style."