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The universe of Beatrix Potter

I spent a lot of the summer of 2016 reading Beatrix Potter to my 2-year-old, and I became obsessed with trying to work out if the recurring characters all exist in the same universe.

So I started drawing myself a diagram of how they overlapped, and discovered:

1. Yes.
2. The diagram looked a bit like Jemima Puddle-duck

So here is a tidied-up version of my Venn Duckagram.

Some interesting things about it:

• It’s very nearly two separate universes: the head and neck are the early stories set around Derwent Water; the body is the later stories near Windermere.
• All that joins them together is Sally Henny-penny’s cameo appearance in Mrs. Tiggy-winkle’s laundry basket. That turns out to be the hub of the entire series.
• I haven’t included The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, because that came out while I was finalising my diagram and would have ruined everything by bringing Peter Rabbit and Tabitha Twitchit together.