The Tale of Kitty in Boots

It was announced yesterday (no warning at all!) that there is going to be a new Beatrix Potter story being released in September of this year! There was a TV programme of More4 in the evening, announcing this but the news broke in the morning. 

And it sent the news (and Twitter) into a frenzy! 

The story was discovered by fluke. One of the publishers from Penguin Random House (which owns Frederick Warne & Co - the publishers who still publish Beatrix Potter's work to this day) found a reference to "Kitty In Boots" in an out-of-print biography a few years ago and discovered a rough manuscript of the story at the Victoria and Albert Museum, along with a rough colour sketch of Kitty in Boots (please see left) and a pencil sketch of the villainous Mr Todd. 

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth, Fredrick Warne & Co will be publishing this story with illustrations done by Quentin Blake sometime in September 2016. 

Is is wrong am quite excited over this? It's been YEARS since I read a Beatrix Potter book (I can still remember the covers that held my attention as a child!) and I think this will be wonderful. I am a little uncertain if Quentin Blake's style is suitable for a Beatrix Potter, but I won't pass judgement to I actually have the book in my hand and I have read the story. 

Of course am going to buy it. This is me we're talking about. 

And this makes me realise that I have only read a handful of her works - maybe it's time I reread some of them and discover the rest. What do you guys think? Any that I must investigate or return to?

I feel so sorry for my library over the next few months... Or the people behind the official Beatrix Potter Twitter feed, where I will annoy them with questions and trying to shamelessly book-flirt information out of them...