Mr. McGregor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mr. Michael McGregor |
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Mr. McGregor in an illustration from The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902)
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| First appearance | The Tale of Peter Rabbit |
| Last appearance | The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies |
| Created by | Beatrix Potter |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Michael |
| Aliases | Michael, Mike |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Gardener |
| Family | Thomas McGregor (nephew) |
| Spouse(s) | Mrs. McGregor |
| Nationality | Scottish |
Mr. Michael McGregor is a fictional character in Peter Rabbit series of children's books written by author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. He is an elderly Scottish horticulturalist intent upon keeping the rabbits out of his vegetable garden and occasionally attempting to catch them to put them in a pie and eat them. Potter denied the character was based on a real person but her mentor in mycology, Charles McIntosh, may have been the inspiration for McGregor's physical appearance and her landlord in 1893, Atholl McGregor, may have been the source for the character's name. Mr. McGregor appeared in two episodes of an animated BBC television series based on Potter's books in 1992.
Contents
Background
On 4 September 1893, Beatrix Potter addressed a story and picture letter to Noel Moore, the five-year-old son of her former governess Annie Carter Moore. The letter told of a humanised lagomorph called Peter Rabbit and his adventure in Mr. McGregor's garden. In the following years, Potter continued to send story and picture letters to Noel and his siblings.
Mrs. Moore recognised their literary and artistic value and urged the author to publish them. Potter borrowed the original Peter Rabbit letter from Noel, copied it out, and developed the tale. Attempts to find a publisher for the tale were unsuccessful, and Potter privately published the tale to great success among family and friends.
In 1902, Frederick Warne & Co. expressed their interest in the tale, persuaded Potter to colour the illustrations, and published the book in October 1902. The book was wildly popular and Potter's career as a children's author and illustrator was launched.
Books
Mr. McGregor is an elderly gardener who makes his first appearance in The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902). He was originally intended to share title honours with Peter. Potter's manuscript title was The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor's Garden but McGregor and his garden were dropped when Potter privately published the book in 1901.
In the tale, Peter's mother has forbidden her four children to enter McGregor's garden (their father met his end there and was made into a pie by Mrs. McGregor) but Peter does so once his mother leaves on an errand for the bakery. McGregor chases Peter about the garden but Peter escapes after losing his jacket and shoes. McGregor dresses a scarecrow with Peter's clothing.
McGregor next appears in the sequel, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904). Peter returns to McGregor's garden with his cousin Benjamin to retrieve his jacket and shoes. McGregor has a small role in the tale and appears only in the closing pages where he is mystified by tiny footprints in the garden, the disappearance of the scarecrow's clothes, and a cat locked in his greenhouse. In spite of his limited role in the action, the effect that he had in the previous story makes Peter very nervous about staying in the garden for too long, though it is McGregor's cat who almost seals the bunnies' doom.
In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909) McGregor has a substantial role in the story and is even given some dialogue. Finding the six sleeping children of the adult Benjamin Bunny, he puts them in a sack and makes plans to sell them for tobacco. His wife, however, wants to skin them and line her cloak with their fur. The two are disappointed in their plans when they discover the bunnies have escaped the sack and have been replaced with old vegetables and a brush.
Mrs. McGregor
Mrs. McGregor appears (or is mentioned) in the same three books as her husband. In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the reader learns Mrs. McGregor baked Peter's father in a pie some time before the story opens. Potter created two illustrations of Mrs. McGregor – one, aged and one, youthful – for the first trade edition of the tale. Her publisher rejected the aged portrait and published the youthful Mrs. McGregor (which Potter hinted in 1939 was a caricature of herself). The aged portrait survived three early printings until the fourth printing of 1903 when it was dropped altogether to make way for illustrated endpapers.
In the 2002 edition from publisher Frederick Warne, the youthful portrait of Mrs. McGregor was returned to the tale opposite the text, "Your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor." Behind the youthful Mrs. McGregor is a child holding a spoon and at her left hand is a black dog. Three other illustrations dropped in 1903 for the endpapers were also returned to the tale in the 2002 edition.
In Benjamin Bunny, Mrs. McGregor leaves home in her best bonnet to ride in a gig driven by Mr. McGregor. In The Flopsy Bunnies, she wants to skin the bunnies to line her old cloak with their fur and scolds her husband when she discovers the bunnies have escaped. Her back appears in the 23rd illustration of The Flopsy Bunnies.
Adaptations
Jerry Verno portrayed Mr. McGregor in a dramatised series of Beatrix Potter tales produced by Fiona Bentley and recorded by HMV Junior Record Club (words by David Croft, music by Cyril Ornadel), recorded in 1959, issued, released, and published in 1959-1960, re-released in 1961-1971.
In HBO's 1991 animated musical adaptation of The Tale of Peter Rabbit (under their Storybook Musicals banner), Mr. McGregor was voiced by Kevin Clash.
In 1992, several of Potter's tales were adapted to animation and televised by the BBC as The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. In an episode that integrates The Tale of Peter Rabbit with The Tale of Benjamin Bunny called "The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny", Mr. McGregor is voiced by Richard Wilson and Mrs. McGregor by June Watson. In "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and Mrs. Tittlemouse", Mr. McGregor is voiced by Andrew Robertson and Mrs. McGregor again by June Watson. In this episode (with no basis in Potter), Mr. McGregor's first name is given as John.
More recently, Mr. McGregor has appeared frequently in the CBeebies CGI-animated TV series Peter Rabbit. He is voiced by Dave Mitchell in the series, but his face and upper body are usually kept offscreen.
Mr. McGregor also appears in the 2018 film adaptation of Peter Rabbit, portrayed by Sam Neill. He is shown in the beginning of the film, where he dies of a heart attack before he can make Peter into a pie. Soon after, his great nephew, Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson), inherits his country home. The flashbacks show old McGregor eating unhealthy food because of his wife's death.
