Isn’t it funny how a bear likes honey….. A A Milne

If you catch the train to Royal Tunbridge Wells and then the 291 bus to Hartfield, you find yourself in Pooh country. 

Winnie the Pooh and his friends were the characters created by Alan Alexander Milne and he wrote stories about their adventures with his son Christopher Robin.

Milne was born the 18^th of January 1882 in Kilburn London.  After graduating from Cambridge in 1903, Milne contributed verse and essays to Punch, joining the staff in 1906 and becoming an assistant editor. During this time he published 18 plays and 3 novels. His son, Christopher Robin, was born in 1920 and in 1924; A A Milne produced a collection of children’s poems – When We Were Very Young, illustrated by E H Shepard; a collection of short stories for children and other stories that became part of Winnie-the Pooh books were first published in 1925.

When the Milne family moved to the farm in Hartfield, they still owned the house in Chelsea and this is where the writer lived during the week only returning to Hartfield on the weekends.  The store that is now Pooh Corner was a regular weekly trip for Christopher Robin and his nanny and A A Milne wrote the stories about Christopher Robin and his toys after hearing the tales his son told him.

If you hike through the woods, you come across Poohsticks Bridge and the enchanted places that are in the Pooh stories.  There’s even a plaque to commemorate the writer of the stories and the illustrator whose pictures are as famous as the characters.

Winnie-the-Pooh is an icon and he has been portrayed in cartoons by Disney as the stories of the adventurous bear continue to fascinate children everywhere.  My son Warren has a Winnie-the-Pooh bear which he has outgrown and the bear is now being cared for by my sister Pauline in Australia just in case he ever has children of his own.  If A A Milne were still around, I’m sure he would be delighted to think that his characters are still enjoyed by children everywhere, which reminds me that Once upon a time in London, a writer fell in love with the adventures of his son and wrote stories about Christopher Robin and his toys that will continue to amuse for generations.

www.pooh-country.co.uk