- Paperback: 424 pages
- Publisher: The History Press Ltd (1 Nov 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752440853
- ISBN-13: 978-0752440859
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 219,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A.A. Milne is one of the most successful English writers ever. His heart-warming creations - Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet - have become some of the best-loved children's characters of all time, and readers the world over are familiar with the stories from the "Hundred Acre Wood". Yet the man himself has remained an enigma. Although in many ways his behaviour was that of a typical golf-playing, pipe-smoking Englishman, Milne refused to be typecast, and his publishers despaired when he turned from writing popular columns for "Punch" to writing detective stories. They complained again when the detective writer presented them with a set of children's verse, but when "When We Were Very Young" became one of the best-selling books of all time, Milne's credibility as one of the world's favourite authors was sealed. And yet, for his son Christopher Robin, the success of his father was to be an almost intolerable burden. In this prize-winning classic biography, Ann Thwaite reveals the man behind Pooh in all his complexity, including his experiences at the Somme in 1916 and his relationship with literary giants such as H.G. Wells, P.G. Wodehouse and J.M. Barrie. She constructs a vivid and poignant portrayal of the inscrutable man and his stories, which earned so much devotion among readers that, eighty years since their creation, this portrait of their creator remains a must for followers of Pooh - whatever their age.
About the Author
Ann Thwaite was born of New Zealand parents in London in 1929. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford and has been a writer, biographer and reviewer all her life. She lives with her husband, the poet Anthony Thwaite, in Norfolk
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is truly in a class of its own - the best biography I have ever read. Ann Thwaite appreciates Milne's unique talent and versatility - docutmenting in full his plays, sketches, essays, poems, novels, autobiography, work on pacifism and, of course, children's books.
Ann Thwaite's book is so readable because she clearly loves Milne's books, whether she is dealing with his life (as the title suggests) and therefore him as a father and husband, or his professionaly life, or childhood, Thwaite deals with each topic in a stylistic and researched manner.
Nobody should read the Winnie the Pooh books until they have read this!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
The definitive biography of A.A. Milne
7 Feb 2002
Format:Hardcover
It really is too bad that all the good books seem to be out of print. When I saw this one on sale, I knew I had to grab it -- good, bad or indifferent, a book of this size that would give me so much information on one of my favorite authors had to be mine.
Little did I know what a treasure trove I'd found. A.A. Milne had written an autobiography, of course (in which he kept much of himself "buttoned up", so to speak), and his son Christopher (Robin) Milne had added to that in his own autobiographical trilogy; but no one had done a definitive biography. Ann Thwaite got Christopher's permission to try, but Christopher himself felt he would be of little help; all the relevant information seemed to have been destroyed by his mother. Happily, that was far from the case; much had been sold to the University of Texas at Austin and Trinity College in England, and many other family members and acquaintances were able to assist.
The result of Ms. Thwaite's massive efforts is a very detailed, yet very readable biography of a complex man. If there is a great deal of background on Christopher and the Pooh Books along the way, so much the better; but Alan Alexander Milne was a highly regarded writer and editor for Punch and a highly successful playwright long before his short interlude as an author for children. Ironically, it was the Pooh Books that made his fame -- and added an unwelcome burden to his son's life. Yet his natural and acquired pacifism is no less evident in his adult writings, especially in his works pleading for the abolition of war.
If you are a lover of the Pooh Books and want to learn about the man behind them, this is the book to beg, borrow, or...well, maybe someone will permit you to photocopy it. Not I. ....
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A Pity
30 Sep 2001
Format:Hardcover
It is a great pity that books like this go out of print: a pity that goes hand-in-hand with the subject. Of A. A. Milne's hundred or so plays, books and poetry, only five books remain in print. Four of them we all know, the fifth is 'Toad of Toad Hall', and adaptation of Graham's 'Wind in the Willows'. Few people realise that, during his life, Milne was most valued as a playwright. Thwaite realsied this, and that is perhaps why the book is no longer available, despite its brilliance. Twaite concentrates on his wonderful plays and adult books (which can be found if 2nd hand bookshops are searched long enough) with a sensitive yet hard-hitting analysis of the reclusive author. Nobody should be allowed to read the Winnie the Pooh books (brilliant as they are) without reading this. Milne would have wanted it. Superb book. I hope Ann reads this review!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Is Wit Vanity?
11 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I started this book, I was amazed to find that much of A.A. Milne's correspondence in letters is actually kept in one of the libraries at the University of Texas in Austin, which isn't too far from me. I was initially planning on taking a trip over there to ask a librarian to see the letters, but this book is SO exhaustive, I don't really feel the need to see them anymore.
Despite its exhaustiveness, much about Milne remains unanswered. It's like the biography "His Excellency" of George Washington. While being a wonderul, lenghty, in-depth book, the biographical figure is just plain hard to pin down. Nobody can do it. But Mrs. Thwaite puts an unbelievable amount of effort into it, probably reading more to complete this work than I've read in my entire life. There's probably no greater expert you'll find on Pooh and his creator than this lady.
We see Milne's start as a child prodigy who cares only for his brother, follow him through his struggle to start a career after graduation, cheer as he gets lucky and lands his dream job, understand as he grows bored with his dream job and ventures into new fields, wonder how he manages to live through participation in a brutal war, marvel as he grows into a household name before even starting the Pooh books, smile in expectancy as we see his Pooh books outsell seemingly everything there is, grow weary with his thoroughly expressed political beliefs that seem so much less humorous than his writing, and sigh as he dies at the end of a writing career that has only declined since its long-ago peak.
I was inspired to read Ecclesiastes after reading this book. Milne's story really shows the vanity and ultimate unpredictability of the world. Even if you can read when you're two, and become a household name that will be remembered for generations, it doesn't really seem to matter in the end. All that praise Milne wanted for his later works just didn't happen, and everything he did earlier in his life couldn't change that fact. Whether this has anything to do with Milne's somewhat atheistic beliefs, I don't know. I do know that a lot of this biography is quite depressing. Imagine how Milne felt when he had to alter his whole pacifistic theory simply because a man as evil as Hitler could exist. He must have been so disappointed in humanity in order to lower his (very high) ideals like that.
Well, hopefully Blue and his son Billy Moon are somewhere out there in the universe now having a blast, despite the beliefs they had while previously living among us. I feel the need to always thank this man for Pooh, and I'd like to read Mr. Pim Passes By some day when I'm not so burnt out on Milne's name.
Despite its exhaustiveness, much about Milne remains unanswered. It's like the biography "His Excellency" of George Washington. While being a wonderul, lenghty, in-depth book, the biographical figure is just plain hard to pin down. Nobody can do it. But Mrs. Thwaite puts an unbelievable amount of effort into it, probably reading more to complete this work than I've read in my entire life. There's probably no greater expert you'll find on Pooh and his creator than this lady.
We see Milne's start as a child prodigy who cares only for his brother, follow him through his struggle to start a career after graduation, cheer as he gets lucky and lands his dream job, understand as he grows bored with his dream job and ventures into new fields, wonder how he manages to live through participation in a brutal war, marvel as he grows into a household name before even starting the Pooh books, smile in expectancy as we see his Pooh books outsell seemingly everything there is, grow weary with his thoroughly expressed political beliefs that seem so much less humorous than his writing, and sigh as he dies at the end of a writing career that has only declined since its long-ago peak.
I was inspired to read Ecclesiastes after reading this book. Milne's story really shows the vanity and ultimate unpredictability of the world. Even if you can read when you're two, and become a household name that will be remembered for generations, it doesn't really seem to matter in the end. All that praise Milne wanted for his later works just didn't happen, and everything he did earlier in his life couldn't change that fact. Whether this has anything to do with Milne's somewhat atheistic beliefs, I don't know. I do know that a lot of this biography is quite depressing. Imagine how Milne felt when he had to alter his whole pacifistic theory simply because a man as evil as Hitler could exist. He must have been so disappointed in humanity in order to lower his (very high) ideals like that.
Well, hopefully Blue and his son Billy Moon are somewhere out there in the universe now having a blast, despite the beliefs they had while previously living among us. I feel the need to always thank this man for Pooh, and I'd like to read Mr. Pim Passes By some day when I'm not so burnt out on Milne's name.
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