The men who created Winnie the Pooh - The lives of A.A Milne and E.H Shepard - BY James Campbell

Firstly, James Campbell did an awesome job with this duel-biography! And I am glad to have been given the opportunity to read and review it. 💎

There are so many awesome facts crammed in here! I learnt a few things that both surprised me and made me laugh out loud throughout. I for one didn’t know that H.G Wells was A.A Mine’s maths teacher 😲 or that A.A Mine’s father was the house master of the school he and his brothers attended and H.G Wells taught at…I find facts like this super cool, although I’m not so sure how cool it would have been to have either of my parents as teachers in my school. lol My siblings and I learnt a lot at home from both of our parents and I’m glad they were learnt there, at home! 😉

Christopher Robin (born 1920) was the son of A.A Milne and his wife Daphne. After the birth of Christopher Robin, Milne started to write snippets of poetry in a light-hearted, whimsical style, for children but aimed at resonating with grown-ups as well. At first he did these for his own amusement and for the pleasure of writing for his precious son, but gradually he took some of his scribblings and started to work them up into pieces he thought might, at some point, be suitable for publication. 👌🏻

2026 - The Centenary of the publication of Winnie-The-Pooh - Also marks the 70th anniversary of the death of A.A.Milne and the 50th anniversary of the death of Ernest Shepard.

Above all Winnie The Pooh is hands down my all time favourite, of which Tigger is my favourite character! 💕

….Now I want to read The Wind in the Willows ☺️

I enjoyed discovering who Milne and his partner were in real life. However, I wish the focus would’ve been more on AA Milnes creating Winnie the Pooh instead of Graham and wind and the willows.

3.75 stars rounded up. You’d be hard pushed to find someone who hadn’t read or seen a book/episode of Winnie the Pooh, and they’re a popular part of many childhoods. But how many people know much about the men who wrote and illustrated these iconic books? At most you might know a little about how Christopher Milne felt about being the subject of the books, but probably not much else. This book covers the lives of Alan Milne and Ernest Shepherd, interspersed with many illustrations from Shepherd.
It’s clearly well researched, and although at times it came across as a little dry in tone, I do think you get a feeling for both of the men’s personalities.

I received a free ARC copy of this book via NetGalley and the publishers, in return for an unbiased review.