The books for young children by Alan Alexander Milne, about Pooh Bear and other animal characters, are the most successful that the world has ever known, being loved around it from Australia and California to Russia. They were composed originally for his son, Christopher Robin, whose relationship with his father has recently been made the subject of two (rather inaccurate) films. Milne himself was one of the best-selling authors of the 1920s, before he wrote anything for children, and yet he is today himself one of the most forgotten of English writers. This talk is designed to introduce readers to his often rather dark story, and complex character, and to show how and why Winnie the Pooh came to be created, and the effect of his creation and success on both Alan Milne and Christopher Robin.
Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is a leading authority on history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs.
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