Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

Alan 
Alexander Milne 
(1882-1956) created such an escapist fantasy world. Set in a pastoral, 
idyllic play-world, Milne’s two fantasies relate the adventures of a small boy, Milne’s son, 
and his stuffed plush animals. Two prose novels, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at 
Pooh Corner
(1928), and two poetry collections, When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now 
We Are Six 
(1927), established the lasting fame of the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and its 
young owner Christopher Robin. Although Milne considered himself primarily a writer for 
adults, nowadays we associate him exclusively with his novels and poems for children, 
including the play Toad of Toad Hall (1929), an adaptation of Grahame’s The Wind in the 
Willows
.
37
Almost 80 years after their first publication, the Pooh books have not lost their initial 
charm and “continue to be best-sellers.”
38
With loving detail, Milne draws the picture of an 
idyllic community of Christopher Robin’s talking toy animals. Like in real life, every animal 
has its own distinctive character, including all its flaws. Due to their own little foibles, 
harmless misunderstandings and problems arise, always to be solved in the end. So on the one 
35
Compare C.S. Lewis. “On Stories”. In: Margaret Meek; Aidan Warlow; Griselda Barton (Eds.) The Cool Web: 
The Pattern of Children’s Reading
. London; Sydney; Toronto: The Bodley Head, 1977, pp. 76-90, p. 85. 
36
Watson, The Cambridge Guide, p. 483. 
37
Ibd., p. 483. 
38
Compare Cullinan; Person, The Continuum Encyclopedia, p. 548. 

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54 
hand, Christopher Robin is the child of the frame-story, on the other hand the fatherly, adult 
figure within the story. Yet, he is still child enough to enjoy all the little things that make up 
childhood: Friends, food, social pick-nicks and exploration parties.
39
In The House at Pooh Corner the animals, just like the children, have to learn how to 
cope with their animosities, how to deal with jealousy, how to make compromises and how to 
apologise after a quarrel. All this is done in a simple, clear language which small children can 
easily understand and follow when read to or when starting to read for themselves.
40
Furthermore, the fact that these lessons are disguised in an animal story makes it easier for the 
children to accept the moral values conveyed. It can be noted, however, that The House at 
Pooh Corner
is not as carefree and light-hearted as Winnie-the-Pooh. At the end of the playful 
book looms a serious future. Christopher Robin will leave the nursery and his toys behind, go 
to school and eventually grow up. The spell will soon be broken. Yet, in the meantime, we 
revel in the nostalgic and melancholic illusion of eternal youth and bliss. What stays behind is 
the loving memory of the cute bear of very little brain, a symbol of carefree childhood, 
inspiring later authors such as Richard Adams for their own animal fantasies.