Eleanor Dobbs illustrates Peter Rabbit in BookTrust project gifted to all UK newborns

Eleanor Dobbs has illustrated a Peter Rabbit book which will be gifted to newborns across the UK in 2026 in a charity project by the BookTrust.

Ms Dobbs told the Chronicle she was chosen to illustrate three debut titles by famous British actress Emma Thompson.

Ms Thompson is an Academy Award-winning actress and best known for starring in Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, two Harry Potter films, Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice.

The actress has written for the Peter Rabbit series over the years, and this project is special as a copy of the book will be gifted to every baby born in the UK as part of the BookTrust’s BookStart baby pack.

“It was a very exciting and quite daunting request,” Ms Dobbs told the Chronicle.

“Thanks to great art direction and the kindness of Emma [Thompson] we definitely let Peter have a new breath of life that has since then escalated and rolled into a brilliant thing for the publisher and an exciting part of the work for myself.”

Ms Dobbs is a professional illustrator and is known locally for her work fostering writing and arts with the Rock Retreat.

“Without a doubt, it brings me a great thrill to go into Waterstones and major bookshops around the world and almost always see books I have illustrated on the shelves,” she said.

“But I think the greatest one came this year, when I got the news BookTrust, a charity which encourages reading, has taken my illustrations into an official BookStart which will go into the hands of every baby born in 2026.”

The book, Peter Rabbit: Four Happy Bunnies, is the first book that has ever been created exclusively for BookStart’s baby project.

“It’s hugely exciting and it’s unimaginable to think that every newborn will be getting it in their BookStart pack,” Ms Dobbs said.

“We have a crisis in reading and sharing stories, and this is an affirmation that the illustrations that I make appeal to the hearts of that sensitive time in a newborn’s life.”

She described how it is incredible to think her illustrations will be part of those early memories of parents reading while cuddling with their children.