BEATRIX Potter is the bookies’ favourite to become the next face of the £20 note.

The children’s author, who made her home in the Lake District, has been named by bookmaker Coral as the 7-1 frontrunner to replace economist Adam Smith on the note.

She appears ahead of fashion designer Alexander McQueen and artist Barbara Hepworth at 8-1, and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and painter JMW Turner at 9-1.

The Peter Rabbit creator gained 66 per cent of the vote, which saw 21,000 nominations flood into the Bank of England’s public consultation on who should appear on the new £20 note.

Nominees to replace Smith must come from the world of the visual arts and no longer be alive.

Liz Macfarlane, house and collections manager for the National Trust’s Hill Top at Sawrey, Beatrix Potter’s first house in the Lake District, said: “Beatrix would be an inspirational portrait for the new £20 note."