WINNIE THE POOH AUTHOR

A.A. Milne created the lovable Winnie the Pooh for his own son before sharing him with us. According to Christopher Robin Milne, his father Alan Alexander Milne never intended to write the books in which the bear and his friends.

They were, he said, for the child within, and it hardly requires a great deal of literary insight to acknowledge that much of their content, and most especially the tinder-dry dialogue of a certain grey donkey, is rather less the fare of the innocent than the droll asides of the world- weary. Pooh himself, as though to provide balance from Eeyore, was reassuringly wide-eyed and free of guile.

Animal antics

Pooh was, nevertheless, the star of the show, aided and abetted by a rather fey little pig, a matronly kangaroo and her child, an egocentric owl, a hyperactive tiger, a rather too grown-up rabbit and the gloriously melancholic donkey.

Making his first appearance in print in a short story published in the London Evening News on December 24th 1925, Pooh finally hit the bookshelves a year later in the Methuen- published Winnie The Pooh and changed the fortunes and, for better or worse, the profile of the Milne family for ever.

A.A. Milne died in 1956 at the age of 73, a prolific writer almost until the end. Of course, he didn't live to see his 'Bear of Little Brain' transformed into a global, multi-million dollar industry courtesy of Walt Disney's eye for a commercial opportunity.

Christopher Robin Milne did, and he loathed the mighty American corporation's vision of the bear, who is second only to Mickey Mouse in terms of worldwide earnings - Disney recently renewed the rights to the Pooh image for a staggering $400 million.

WINNIE THE POOH AUTHOR

Origin of the species

To find the real Pooh and friends, look no further than the original books and the wistfully beautiful illustrations of Milne's colleague from his day's at Punch, Ernest Howard Shepard, a man who quite obviously 'got' the Pooh thing right from the start. Sketches by Shepard entitled Pooh Lowers the Sail sold for £5,800 at Duke's Auction House in Dorchester .

In 2000, the residents of Winnipeg paid £124,250 at Sotheby's for the only known oil painting of Winnie the Pooh by Ernest Shepard. They bought it to be the centrepiece of the planned Winnie the Pooh Museum. The famous bear was named after a black bear cub called Winnie, whose owner Lieutenant Harry Colebourn came from the Canadian town from which the name was derived.

6, Pooh Bear Facts

1 The 'real' Pooh, a teddy bear, was bought from Harrods and given by A.A. Milne to his son Christopher Robin on his first birthday, August 21, 1921. At the time he was called Edward Bear

2 The rest of the toys - a donkey, kangaroo, piglet, and tiger - were received as gifts by Christopher Robin between 1920 and 1928

WINNIE THE POOH AUTHOR

3 Not only Christopher Robin played with the toys; so, apparently, did the family dog, which may have contributed to their well-worn appearance

4 Owl and Rabbit were brought to life to join Pooh and pals Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, and Tigger, by Milne and illustrator E. H. Shepard

5 The original soft toys now reside in a glass case at the New York Public Library, with the exception of Roo who was lost in an orchard in the 1930s

6 So many people visited Poohsticks Bridge near the village of Upper Hartfield, East Sussex, that it needed repairing. The area thrives on Pooh history and A.A. Milne set his famous books around the 500 Acre Wood (known in the books as The Hundred Acre Wood) and other places near Cotchford Farm where he came on holiday with his family, including Christopher. Statues of the famous characters were later set within the grounds. The house also played host to another famous artist, The Rolling Stones' founder Brian Jones who tragically drowned in its swimming pool shortly after moving in

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