Thwaite, Ann : A.A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie the Pooh

A. A. Milne is one of the most popular English writers, and his famous creationsWinnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet-have become part of our language, lives and mythology. Perhaps only Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll are quoted today more frequently. Yet Milne the man has remained an enigma. Although he behaved and looked like the conventional, golf-playing, pipe-smoking, typically English gentleman, he refused to be typecast. When the well-known Punch humorist wanted to write a detective story, his publishers complained, and they complained again when the successful detective-story writer presented them with a book of children's verses. The book, When We Were Very Young, turned out to be one of the best-selling books of all time, and they stopped complaining. Yet for Milne himself, and for his son, Christopher, the children's books became an almost intolerable burden. In this first biography of A. A. Milne, Ann Thwaite reveals the man himself in all his complexities. As one critic put it, commenting on Milne's highly popular plays, "Mr. Milne is obviously at heart (like all humorists) a serious person, with things to say.' He had strong political feelings and was a pacifist even before his experiences in the trenches in World War I. There was always something darker and more tangled about his character under his "bright glitter of surfaces." At his father's school, Milne was taught by the young H. G. Wells, who remained a lifelong friend; later, J. M. Barrie called him "my Mr. Milne" and was "uncommon proud of him." .