“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

There is no denying that A.A. Milne created the most well known character in children’s literature. Milne created the bear of very little brain, Winnie the Pooh, for his son Christopher Robin and Pooh has since been reincarnated many times by Disney in cartoons, movies and merchandise galore.

The original books, Winnie-the-Pooh – first published 1926 – and The House at Pooh Corner – first published 1928 – are classic and sometimes have been over shadowed by the more recent animated franchises.

Winnie was named after a real Canadian brown bear who lived at the London Zoo, and who Christopher Robin loved to visit, and Pooh was the name of a swan who lived near their country home. The gorgeous charm in the Pooh stories is that Christopher Robin is one of the main characters, even if we now know that the real Christoper Robin didn’t actually have a close relationship with his father – we can ignore that!

A.A. Milne’s stories and poems are a joy to read aloud, they are soothing and calming, perfect for bedtime. There is nothing challenging or frightening about the tales, they are just pure pleasure for children and adults alike. They transport the reader to another time and an enchanted place where friendship is the most important thing.

To speak about Winnie the Pooh though E.H Shepherd’s beautiful illustrations must also be mentioned. Evidently Milne and Shepherd spent hours and hours together in the woods that inspired the 100 Acre Wood in the stories. Shepherd sketched the landscapes and the animals that were to become Owl and Rabbit and others. It’s these sketches and subsequent watercolours that make the stories come to glorious life on the pages of the books. The bear that was inspiration for Pooh was actually Shepherd’s sons teddy and not Christopher Robin’s.

It is reported that E.H. Shepherd actually resented being asked to illustrate the Winnie the Pooh stories. Read this article from the BBC News Magazine - but I’ll chose to ignore that too to preserve my love of Pooh.

I don’t think there would be a more lovely gift for a newborn baby or for a first birthday than a copy of a Pooh book or of Milne’s poetry for them to treasure forever and hand down to future generations. To me Pooh will never grow old.

This week it was announced that Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, the first ever authorised sequel to A.A. Milne’s original books, will be released on October 5 worldwide.  It is to be written by novelist and producer David Benedictus who said this about getting the job, “I hope the new book will complement and maintain Milne’s idea that, whatever happens, a little boy and his bear will always be playing.”

It will be illustrated by Mark Burgess and it is hoped that it will be a huge seller. The initial print run in the US is said to be in excess of 100,000 copies. Fingers crossed it’s good.

||Winnie The Pooh is available online from Readings||