Today is the birthday of Winnie the Pooh author A.A Milne. This means that every year this day is celebrated as Winnie the Pooh Day and this year I decided to jump on the band wagon! A.A. Milne, who was born in 1882, based his stories about Pooh on his son's stuffed animals and even incorporated Christopher Robin into the stories by making him a key character. I was very surprised to learn that Milne studied Maths at Cambridge. I suppose this just goes to show that mathematicians do have imagination! Winnie the Pooh was first published on 14th October 1926 so is definitely a children's classic. Last week I read and completed Milne's first Pooh book Winnie the Pooh and next I will be starting House at Pooh Corner. This is a series that I never picked up when I was younger and one that I regret not having read until now because they really do deserve to be as popular as they are.
One of the things that I noticed when reading the book is that it makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is a father making up stories about his son's toys. I liked that it was that honest. I liked that the narrator could be heard when you were reading. I also liked that every so often Christopher Robin would interject and ask questions of the story which made it so much more interactive. This form also helped to make the stories feel intimate and personal. Even though I was often reading them on a busy train, I felt as though I was sitting in front of a warm fire with tea and biscuits. 
I was very shocked to realise that Tigger is not in the first book! When I was growing up it was always Pooh and Tigger and I never really looked too much at characters like Owl and Rabbit. I also don't think that I appreciated how reasonable Eeyore's gloominess is. In all of the stories from the first book I see Eeyore as having genuine reasons for being sad and the poor thing seems to be a victim of some genuine misfortune. In chapter four Eeyore loses his tail which is a part of him! At the beginning of chapter six he is sad because no one has remembered his birthday and in chapter eight his offer of help is completely ignored. I found myself feeling very sorry for Eeyore a lot of the time and I know that he probably doesn't get any happier, but I really whish he would! Maybe in the final book everyone's favourite donkey can have a happy ending. 
I borrowed my copy of this book from the library and I have to to say that it is incredibly beautiful. All of the pictures that are in this post are photographs that I took of the illustrations which were drawn by Ernest H. Shepard. They are simple and evocative and childlike in the best sense of that word. The book had a heart-warming quality that meant even though the stories were simple they brought a smile to your face and the illustrations were a perfect compliment to that. I look forward to the next installment of Pooh and will buying my nieces and nephews a copy of these as soon as they are able to read!
Rating: ★★★★
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