... was based on a true story, about a real–life tailor named John Prichard, who worked in Gloucester. He was commissioned make a suit for the new mayor, and when he returned to his shop one Monday morning he found the suit completed except for one buttonhole. A note attached read 'No more twist'. Prichard's assistants had finished the coat in the night, but he encouraged a rumour that the work had been done by fairies, and the incident became a local legend. Although Prichard was a contemporary of Potter's (born in 1877 – eleven years after her – and in his twenties when the incident took place), Potter's tailor is shown as 'a little old man in spectacles, with a pinched face, old crooked fingers,' and her tale is set in the 18th century.
According to Wikipedia, Potter described The Tailor of Gloucester as her personal favourite among all her books.
© Haydn Thompson 2022