Jemima lays her eggs, and the fox suggests a dinner party to mark the event. Jemima is led to his 'tumble-down shed' (which is curiously filled with feathers), and makes herself a nest with little ado. However, a charming gentleman with 'black prick ears and sandy-coloured whiskers' persuades her to nest in a shed at his home. Critically, the book is considered one of Potter's best.Īt the top of a hill, she spies a distant wood, flies to it, and waddles about until she discovers an appropriate nesting place among the foxgloves. Spinoff merchandise included a soft Jemima doll in bonnet and shawl, a Jemima painting book in 1925, and illustrated fabric placemats hand-fashioned by Potter and distributed to friends. Jemima, Kep, the farmer's wife, and her two children were all modelled on real world individuals at Potter's Hill Top farm. Potter indicated the tale was a revision of ' Little Red Riding Hood' with Jemima, the fox, and the dog acting as parallels to the fairy tale's heroine, wolf, and woodcutter. Kep, a collie on the farm, discovers Jemima's whereabouts and rescues her just in time. Jemima accepts his invitation, little realising her danger: the fox plans to kill and roast her. Jemima searches for a place away from the farm where she can hatch her eggs without human interference, and naively confides her woes to a suave fox who invites her to nest in a shed at his home. Jemima is a domestic duck of the Aylesbury breed, whose eggs are routinely confiscated by the farmer's wife because she believes Jemima to be a poor sitter. Jemima Puddle-Duck was the first of her books set wholly at the farm with background illustrations based on the farm buildings and yard, and nearby locales. Following the purchase, her works began to focus on country and village life, incorporating large casts of animal characters and sinister villains. Potter composed the book at Hill Top, a working farm in the Lake District she bought in 1905. It was first published by Frederick Warne & Co. The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding

Jemima the puddle duck