Some books, such as those A. A. Milne wrote for his son Christopher Robin during the 1920s, speak as profoundly to adults as they do to children. The characters Milne created – Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger – have become eternal symbols of childhood innocence, and are as popular as ever.
Whether it is the ‘wobbly spelling’, the oblique, almost absurdly funny conversations, or the enchanting illustrations of E. H. Shepard, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner provide page after page of incomparable pleasure. Their adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood include rescuing Pooh from a tight situation, discovering the North Pole, saving Piglet from the Great Flood in an upturned umbrella, and, of course, inventing the game of Pooh-sticks.
