The Tale of Tom Kitten was published by Frederick Warne &Co in September 1907, a year after Potter began work on the project. Twenty thousand copies were released in the early autumn of 1907 and a further twelve thousand five hundred copies were published in December. A decade later Potter produced a painting book under Tom Kitten’s name and in 1935 two books of piano music were written for children, which include a piece that was inspired by the character of Tom Kitten. Like many other Potter creations The Tale of Tom Kitten generated merchandising in the form of porcelain figurines and soft plush toys.
She began work on the book in the summer of 1906 and used the interiors of Hill Top, the house she had bought in Sawrey in the Lake District in 1905, as the backdrop to the story. The sketches of the naughty real-life kitten that Potter used for her illustrations in Miss Moppet also served as the inspiration for the characters in Tom Kitten. While alterations were happening to Hill Top, Potter stayed with Mrs Satterthwaite; she had a cat called Tabitha Twitchit, who would become Tom’s mother in the book. A few of the ducks in the work were sketched in London after Potter visited a cousin who owned the birds in Putney Park.
The Tale of Tom Kitten was written in a cheap exercise book and divided into small paragraphs with illustrations drawn in the corners. Potter made several alterations to her manuscript and while she was unhappy with several of her drawings, she revealed an overall contentedness with the work. The tale opens with Tom and his two siblings playing in the dirt, when their mother informs them that she has good company coming to tea and that the children must be dressed smartly. Her attempts to put them in beautiful attire are disastrous because Tom scratches her and bursts the buttons on his clothes. Tabitha fixes the broken buttons and sends the children out of the house while she prepares for the Puddle-Ducks arriving. The naughty disobedient kittens then become involved in mischief and tomfoolery, which threatens to ruin their mother’s evening plans. Tabitha has been viewed by some critics as a stern Victorian mother intent on discipline and keeping up appearances. Tom is rebellious and independent, paying no heed to parental guidelines or rules. He is arguably symbolic of the dangers of the unnatural strictures and confines placed on children during the early twentieth century.