THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER
The Tale of Gloucester was privately printed in 1902 before Frederick Warne & Co published it in October 1903. The book was composed during the period when Potter was also working on The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and it was inspired by astory she heard about a poor tailor in Gloucestershire in the late 1890s. The work was completed by the end of 1901 and given to Annie Carter Moore’s daughter for Christmas. Potter later revised the work before it was privately printed a year later. John Pritchard was a real life tailor commissioned to make a suit for the town mayor, but when he returned to his shop the suit had been completed except for one buttonhole which had note attached saying ‘No more Twist’. In reality his assistants had completed the work, but Pritchard encouraged the story that fairies had made the suit and the tale became a local legend. Potter was allowed inside a tailor’s shop in Chelsea in order to sketch the interior for authenticity, although she chose to employ poetic licence and altered the tailor’s age from his twenties to a much older, more frail and poor man.
The tailor in The Tale of Gloucester would ensure financial security for himself if he managed to make the suit for the mayor because it would result in acquiring wealthy clients. However the old man becomes ill and believes he will be unable to complete the work and that he will be ruined. Potter alters the story Pritchard propagated about fairies to a tale about the work of mice. ‘No more Twist’ becomes a refrain in the book as Potter continues to focus on the literary devices of rhythm and repetition in her work.

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