On August 21, 1920 a boy was born whose playful antics with his toy teddy bear became immortalized in stories written by his father. The stories went on to open a world of imagination for millions of children (and adults) the world over. The teddy bear, given to the boy on his first birthday, is now featured at the Donnell Library Center in New York and the entire franchise is estimated to generate $6 billion dollars in annual revenue. The boy himself came to dislike being the focus of attention as the main character of the phenomenally successful four published books and took great pains to distance himself from it in later life – including taking up boxing to thwart the taunts of his classmates in boarding school.

The boy was Christopher Robin Milne, affectionately known as “Billy Moon” to his parents, and the bear in the books written by A. A. Milne, of course, was “Winnie the Pooh”. Christopher went on to serve in World War II and subsequently ran a successful bookshop after marrying his cousin Lesley. Their only child, Clara, was tragically born with severe cerebral palsy. By the time of his death at the age of seventy six, Christopher Robin had written three books, including The Enchanted Place, which outlined his perceived exploitation and problems as a result of the Pooh books.

First appearing in print in “Winnie-the-Pooh” in 1926, three more books subsequently followed, popular with young and old alike. They were all illustrated by the fascinating E.H. Shepard, the Punch magazine political cartoonist, and featured a host of the real-life Christopher Robin’s other stuffed toys (including Tigger and Piglet), as well as his childhood home, Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, England. For Christopher himself, the tumultuous feelings about the publications featuring his childhood toys, as well as his ability to live without profiting by the books, was something he was very open about and it was only towards the last years of his life, after his mother’s death, that he received any royalties from his father’s creation. The franchise rights are now owned by Walt Disney and Pooh Bear is acknowledged as the most loved character after Mickey Mouse.

From the point of view of a growing young boy, one can imagine what a difficult and traumatic experience it would have been confronting the school bully about being the celebrated “Christopher Robin” of the Pooh series. As a man, when faced with a letter from an angry young female fan about why he was upset to be associated with Pooh Bear, Christopher Robin remembered a line from his father’s book and said:

“'Pooh,' said Christopher Robin earnestly, 'if I—if I'm not quite—' he stopped and tried again— 'Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?' I like to think that Pooh understood. I hope that now others will understand too”.