Alan Alexander Milne was a noted playwright who had been captain of the British Home Guard in World War II, before moving from London to Sussex with his family.
Ashdown Forest become the inspiration for Hundred Acre Wood and the wonderful books of Winnie-the-Pooh (illustrated by E.H. Shepard). Even as adults, there is no wisdom like that from this wise bear:
It’s more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long difficult words. But rather short easy words like ‘What about lunch?
If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may be simply that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.
You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest, waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
When you are Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingifhs inside you, is quite different when it gets out into the open, and has other people looking at it.
Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing. Of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.
Tales from the Forest is a collection of seven new tales by Jane Riordan, written in the style of AA Milne and featuring beautiful humorous illustrations by Mark Burgess (inspired by EH Shepard’s original drawings).
The artist also illustrated The Wind in the Willows, another childhood favourite by Kenneth Grahame, a former banker, whose books were inspired by the Berkshire village of Cookham Dean, near the River Thames.
