We have done a slide on A.A. Milne before for TGT and it’s not a happy tale. Alan wrote Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner for his son, the real Christopher Robin who had a toy bear named Winnie. Toy Winnie was in turn named after a real pet bear in London Zoo, left there when his Canadian owner was called to the trenches during WWI. C.R. Robin also had a toy rabbit, a piglet, a donkey called Eeyore and Tigger, so they were all included in the story.

But Alan didn’t like the success Pooh brought him as he wanted to be a ‘serious’ playwright. So he stopped writing children’s books. The IRL Christopher Robin too didn’t enjoy the success of Pooh either. As he grew up he was bullied at school and resented his father using his toys for the stories. He eventually became estranged from not only his parents, but the vast wealth that he would have inherited as a result of the success of Winnie-the-Pooh.

I’ve mentioned this sad aspect of Pooh today, but only in passing. On Pooh’s 100th Birthday, I’ve made Ernest Shepard’s illustrations the focus. For surely Pooh would not have been such a success without them? They were there, right from the start on the cover of the first edition. Which, by the way, if you or one of your tutees have a copy sitting getting dusty on a bookshelf at home, is worth at least £1000 and five times more if it still has its yellow dust jacket intact.

-Bill