The Tailor of Gloucester

Beatrix Potter's classic story The Tailor of Gloucester is traditionaly read to children on Christmas Eve, just before bed time.

This book tells the story of a poor tailor, his cat, and the mice that live in his shop. He has many scraps of cloth and ribbons left over that are too small for any practical use. The mice take these and make fine clothes for themselves.
The tailor sends his cat Simpkin to buy food and a twist of cherry coloured silk for a coat the mayor has commissioned for his wedding.
While the cat is gone, he frees the mice from teacups where Simpkin has imprisoned them. When Simpkin returns and finds his mice gone, he hides the twist in anger. When the tailor falls ill, the mice save the day by completing the coat.
An animated adaptation of the story was featured on The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends in 1993.

 

Origins of the Story

Whilst visiting her cousin, Caroline Hutton at Harescombe Grange in Gloucestershire, Beatrix Potter became fascinated by a local folk tale about John Pritchard, a tailor who had been commissioned to make a fine suit of clothes for the Mayor of Gloucester. His shop occupied 45 Westgate Street

Before he had been able to finish the suit, someone else mysteriously finished it for him. The only clue was a small note attached to a buttonhole, saying “No more twist”.
Beatrix Potter transformed this story into a tale about Simpkin the cat and a host of helpful mice and the The Tailor of Gloucester was published in 1903.

100 years of Tailor of Gloucester
In 2002 to mark 100 years since the first publication of ‘The Tailor of Gloucester’, Fredrick Warne reproduced all 23 Beatrix Potter books. The new editions featured re-scanned illustrations which captured the extraordinary quality and bright colours of Beatrix Potter’s unique watercolours.