Q 01/05

Why does Peter Rabbit's mother warn her four children to stay out of Mr McGregor's garden?

A) Their father ended in a pie

B) The gate is always locked

C) A dog guards the gate

D) The vegetables are poisoned

Answer · why

A) Their father ended in a pie

Their father ended in a pie: Mrs McGregor baked him after he was caught there, which is why old Mrs Rabbit sends her children down the lane instead.

Q 02/05

In 1936, which film-maker asked Potter if he could make a Peter Rabbit film, and was told no?

A) Charlie Chaplin

B) Alfred Hitchcock

C) Walt Disney

D) Max Fleischer

Answer · why

C) Walt Disney

Walt Disney went away empty-handed: Potter would not hand over her characters, and Disney never did make a Potter film.

Q 03/05

In 1903, Potter made and patented the first ever piece of Peter Rabbit merchandise. What was it?

A) A wallpaper design

B) A soft toy

C) A tea set

D) A jigsaw puzzle

Answer · why

B) A soft toy

A soft toy of Peter, stitched and patented by Potter herself, was the first licensed character in history, a quarter of a century before Mickey Mouse.

Q 04/05

In 1897 a man read Potter's science paper to the Linnean Society, because women could not attend. What was it about?

A) Ferns

B) Mosses

C) Beetles

D) Fungi

Answer · why

D) Fungi

Fungi fascinated her: she painted hundreds of them and worked out how their spores germinate, and in 1997 the Linnean Society apologised for how it ha...

Q 05/05

Potter's teenage diary could not be read until Leslie Linder worked it out in 1958. How was it written?

A) A secret code

B) Church Latin

C) Pitman shorthand

D) Mirror writing

Answer · why

A) A secret code

A secret code of her own devising hid the journal she kept from 1881 to 1897; Linder needed five years to crack it.