If you are a fan of Winnie the Pooh, and who isn’t, you will find this book enlightening. It tells the stories of both the creator and illustrator of the characters and the little boy, for whom his father wrote the books. Christopher Robin was a double edged sword for him. When he was younger, he loved that the stories that revolved around him and his toys. By the time he went off to school, resentment set in that lasted well into adulthood. It would cause estrangement that was never resolved before his father’s death. It is sad that something that gave such pleasure to so many would poison the love of a father and son. Even his father understood the burden he had placed upon his son but it was the chip on his shoulder that was the cause of his angst.

At the end of his life, he had made peace with Pooh and Christopher Robin to the benefit of his daughter and those like her who were born with disabilities. Even he admitted that had he been wired differently and could have embraced his fame, he too might have enjoyed the fact that something in which he played an integral part could be as well loved and admired for generations. I suspect it will continue to be into the future.

Four purrs and two paws up.

The Creators of Winnie the Pooh by Andrew Norman is an insightful exploration of A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard, the minds behind one of the most beloved children's characters. Norman delves into their personal lives, creative struggles, and the unintended consequences of Winnie-the-Pooh’s massive success. While the book offers valuable historical context, it occasionally lacks the depth needed to fully capture the complexities of its subjects.
It felt like reading a behind-the-scenes manual rather than an exploration of what made Winnie-the-Pooh so timeless. A.A. Milne’s wit and Shepard’s artistry are what gave the stories their magic, so if a biography skimps on their personalities in favour of production details, it can feel pretty dry.

Comparative biography for both generalists and specialists
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In a thorough but workman-like chronology, Norman sketches the contexts from which Winnie-the-Pooh was created, including the state of fiction for children at the time, the First and Second World Wars, and the personal circumstances of A A Milne and E H Shephard. Giving some insight into the outcomes of the Pooh books for Milne and his family, the book ends as Disney takes over the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh, which reflects where we are now, with the rights to Pooh now in the public domain.

In its brevity, this feels like a plan for a deeper book, that might expand on the contemporary world of publishing and the times in general, or even as a guide to further research. Norman’s enthusiasm comes through at times which enlivens the otherwise workaday narrative but it raises more avenues of interest than answers many new ones.

I really enjoyed learning more about the creators of Winnie the Pooh. I learned a lot about Milne and Shephard and appreciated the connection to what they were doing not only for the literature, but also within the scope of the culture and society of the time.
You can tell this is a well-researched work that sticks to the thesis throughout. The writing is personable and easy to follow, and the pacing helps to keep the reader engaged with the information without getting distracted or bogged down.
If you are looking to find out more about how Milne developed Pooh and why Shephard created the illustrations he did, then don't skip picking this one up.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Readers of this book will be disappointed if they expect a professional biography of Milne or his original illustrator, Shepherd. That book would be welcome, but this is not it. Instead, it's clear that this was written by a fan, not an historian or biographer. The tone is light and enthusiastic, not at all scholarly, and his casual style may appeal to certain readers though not to everyone.

The author begins by giving a cursory look at the Golden Age of Children's Books and some authors associated with it. Each section begins with a very brief biography, a precis of their major work - mainly using quotes - and speculation on the motivation of the writer. This takes about the first quarter of the book. For anyone interested in classic British children's lit it could prove an interesting quick round up of facts and quotations. In fact, a great deal of this book is actually quotes from other sources, causing it to read like an extended research paper.

Several chapters include details, about shell shock for example, that didn't belong here, and the number of unnecessary details made this short book feel over-padded. Also, the author may be an MD, but that probably doesn't make him able to deduce shell shock, or draw conclusions about someone's feelings and motivations, from scanty evidence. Moreover, instead of weaving the facts together into a coherent narrative they are laid out one by one, as if they aren't interrelated. This contributes to that "research paper" feeling, where an outline is made and followed stiffly from one point to the next.

The end notes and photographs contribute significantly to the value of the text, and the book does contain a lot of information not readily available to the casual reader. It will appeal to some who love Milne's work, but its lack of organization and cohesiveness will disappoint others. If you are interested in this book, I recommend requesting it from your local library to see how it works for you.

A sincere thank you to the publishers for making a Digital Review Copy available to me.

What an absolute joy and an unexpected pleasure.

Picked up thinking I was going to read about Winnie the Pooh and received so much more. This is a delightful book which celebrates children’s literature and life itself.

Focusing on the influences and times of the author AA Milne and illustrator EH Shepherd it is a wonderful insight into their inspiration and interactions. These are warm and engaging biographies, exploring their wider families and the difficulties faced including the impact it had throughout the life of Milne’s son, Christopher Robin.

A book that keeps on giving. Accessible in approach and design. Short pithy and interesting chapters with annotated notes, index, bibliography and photographs that capture the lasting magic of this publication.

I loved the detail through the associations with Punch, a shared love of cricket and the impact of involvement in the First World War. This is a story that spans the generations and with detailed first hand documents brings historical insights into another time. Not an occasional coffee table read, this is an all consuming and satisfying story that brings depth and new focus on the life and work of the creative genius behind this children’s classic.

As someone who adored Winnie the Pooh growing up and wanting to dig into the biographies and books by Milne and Shepard soon, I knew I just had to read this book.

The book explores children books that precede A. A. Milne's work, then covers the creative and literary journeys of both Milne and Shepard. Many chapters are also dedicated to their experience through World War I and the emotional and physical toil on them.

I enjoyed the book overall, and it did introduce me to other books that I would like to read by the creators of Winnie the Pooh, but many times I felt it was very disjointed. For the first 50 or so pages of the book, the book is mostly focused about other literary works and authors that influenced A. A. Milne and at times sharing what he said about them. While I do think this was a useful exercise, I was surprised that such a long section was dedicated to those and felt it could have benefited from shorter excerpts and quotes from those books and more of the literary analysis by the the author.

The chapters are, in general, paced strangely where you will find many chapters that are a single page long that I feel could have been merged with the preceding or following chapters instead. Perhaps the sections dedicated to World War I could've been merged into two or three longer chapters to help with the flow.

Still, I found the book informative and interesting. Even as an introduction to two of the most influential literary figures even before Winnie the Pooh. I just wish it was paced differently and allowed to see more of the creators themselves versus those around them.

I would still recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard and how Winnie the Pooh came to life!

I have always Winnie the Pooh. After reading this book, I have a new image of his character. It is a wonderful book for all ages.

Growing up, my sister and I were big Winnie The Pooh fans so I was really excited to be approved for this. This book is a fantastic book for anyone interested in children's literature or just literature in general. This book discusses several other children's books published from 1865-1926, during the 'golden age' of children's literature. This is very informative and well put together. I really enjoyed this! Special Thank You to Andrew Norman,Pen & Sword/ White Owl Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free digital ARC! This was a little bit difficult to read because the formatting of the digital ARC was a little bit of a mess.  Images of the Disney version of the characters broke up the text, but it didn't really make sense why they were there. This book is all about the Milne and Shephard versions of the characters, not Disney. The writing seemed to be all over the place. Half of the book seemed to be quotes and excerpts from various things, which I found very distracting. It was interesting and informative, but I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone.

The Untold Origins

This story gave the foundation of Winnie the Pooh and more. Based on the title I expected a deep dive on the creators but got a lot more packed into this than expected at first glance. It addressed the underlying messages within Alice and Wonderland, The Jungle Book and more.

The illustrations included were fitting with the topics incorporated.

I think this book would peak the interest of Winnie the Pooh fans, children’s book authors and those heavily interested in the origins of some classic tales.

I received a free copy of this book from Andrew Norman and White Owl. I am voluntarily leaving a review. All opinions are my own.

This was a difficult book to review and give a rating to.
First, the positive angle. The photographs at the end were beautiful, and one could tell, carefully chosen .(Hence the two star rating).
The book itself was disappointing, very different from the description given:
1.)Many pages were devoted to background lives of authors such as Kipling, Barrie, Burnett, and long paragraphs from their books were quoted.
2.)The many quotes from other books, with constant footnoting numbers, made the digital copy almost unreadable.
3.)This entire work was almost nothing but quotes from previously written books, as evidenced by the many pages of footnotes at the end.
4.)The scattered illustrations were of the Disney characters, not Shepherd’s drawings, and the same ones were repeated over and over.

*I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.*

I really enjoyed getting to learn about the creators of Winnie the Pooh, it really brought the time-period perfectly and thought it did a great job in bringing the people to life. Andrew Norman was able to weave a strong story and was glad everything had that research and writing style that I was looking for.

Andrew Norman’s The Creators of Winnie the Pooh is partly about Pooh’s author, A A Milne, and his illustrator, E H Shephard. The first few chapters, however, give some brief details about several other children’s authors from a “Golden Age”, such as Kenneth Grahame, Lewis Carroll, Edith Nesbitt and Beatrix Potter. This section really feels as though Norman is assessing authors with a ticklist, as he tells us which authors anthropomorphised their characters; which ones featured children without mothers; and various other characteristics. Although the information is interesting, I didn’t understand why it was being presented. If the author had given us a few sentences at the beginning, laying out the structure of the book and explaining that he was going to firstly set out the context of children’s literature in late Victorian and Edwardian times before discussing Milne and Shepherd, it would have helped. I found that plunging straight into the views of Roger Lancelyn Green (who he?) and then the list of other authors was quite confusing.

The book could perhaps be more focussed. “Kipling wrote The Jungle Book, which was followed by a plethora of novels, short stories, and poems.” That is undoubtedly true, but I suspect none of the novels; the minority of the short stories; and few of the poems were for children, so is that relevant? The publishers should have assigned an assertive / persuasive editor to this book, who could have taken the author out to tea and given him the benefit of their experience. I suspect their instructions might have sounded like this….

“You have lots of very interesting research and this book is the ideal place to share it. You tell the reader some good stuff. However, think about your reader. They probably don’t need to be told that The House at Pooh Corner is a Winnie the Pooh book by A A Milne. Think about the order in which you tell ‘em stuff. Milne talks about “dog games”, which will puzzle people, so don’t wait for several pages before explaining the term. Re-read what you’ve written – carefully! For example, ‘By 1906, Shephard had […], while at the same time working as an illustrator on the staff of Punch (from 1921).’ How could Ernest Shepherd have done something by 1906 at the same time as doing something else from 1921? You describe the real-life Winnie as losing her mother but a few pages later, you say ‘her father’. Such anomalies may not be significant for the narrative, but they matter because the reader thinks ‘Ummm… Given these careless mistakes, how much can I trust this author?’ Finally… if this is meant to be a serious history - which I think it is - please, in the name of Eeyore, Piglet and Roo, please, please, please, don’t use exclamation marks. It really detracts from the gravitas of the work.”

This is a worthwhile book and it deserves to be read – there is a lot of interesting research in it – but it also deserves to be re-written. If you’re interested in Milne and Shepherd, do buy it and read it, but you made need to grit your teeth first.

#TheCreatorsofWinniethePooh #NetGalley

WoW, Wishes do come true.............and I loved reading the Winnie the Pooh books when I was younger and still do with my nephew.....These are books that never grow old and still a joy to read.

The Creators of Winnie the Pooh by Andrew Norman was a wonderful book especially as it took me down memory lane and explore the great Winnie The Pooh all over again with my Nephew O. I have still got my Teddy my mum bought me when I was a 5 years old and called him after this famous bear. Yes, He sat with us whilst I was reading and telling my nephew all about him.

In 1962, children’s writer Roger Lancelyn Green coined the phrase ‘The Golden Age of Children’s Books’. A. A. Milne’s two Winnie-the-Pooh books, published in 1926 and 1928, which were so beautifully illustrated by artist and book illustrator E. H. Shepard, fall into this category. Milne was clearly motivated to compose his Winnie-the-Pooh stories in order to entertain his young son. However, Christopher Robin came to resent the fact that his father had used his real first names as the names of Pooh’s owner in the books. Was there a deeper reason why Milne created Winnie-the-Pooh? Possibly yes. The author had served as a soldier in the First World War, and by creating Pooh and his ‘Hundred Acre Wood’, he had created a world into which he could withdraw whenever he chose, and thereby mitigate the post-traumatic stress disorder which all military combatants suffer, to a greater or lesser degree. The same applied to Shepard, who also served in that conflict. Having been given the Pooh books as a child, I re-read them as an adult and laughed just as uproariously as I had done all those years ago. Up until then, it had never occurred to me to enquire about their author A. A. Milne and about their illustrator E. H. Shepard. I now decided that it was time to put matters right!

This book is a must have read for new or old fans and a great book to look at now and then to reminisce over a great Yellow bear who stole our hearts so many years ago, A wonderful read.

Big Thank you to NetGalley and White Owl - Pen & Sword for my ARC.

This is a mess.
Winnie the Pooh author, A.A. Milne and artist, E.H. Shephard certainly had interesting lives, but this book is badly produced, tonally all over the place and poorly written. There are vast chunks of text, quoted from other books throughout and whole chapters devoted to discussing the lives of other children's authors who have nothing to do with the book's subject. There are pictures of the Disney versions of Milne's characters throughout (which have nothing to do with and do not resemble in any way, Shepherd's versions) and Norman inserts unnecessary exclamation marks at the end of so may sentences that it's easy to believe he thinks he's writing a children's book himself.
As I say, a mess.

On The Creators of Winnie the Pooh by Andrew Norman

Andrew Norman’s The Creators of Winnie the Pooh offers a profound exploration of the lives and relationships that gave birth to one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time. The book seamlessly intertwines the biographies of author A.A. Milne, illustrator E.H. Shepard, and Christopher Robin Milne, shedding light on the personal and cultural contexts that shaped the creation and legacy of Winnie the Pooh. Through vivid storytelling and a collection of historical photographs, including the real-life toys that inspired the characters, Norman presents a nuanced portrait of creativity, fame, and its costs.

A Great Age for Children’s Literature

The book opens by situating Winnie the Pooh in the "golden age" of children’s literature, when works like Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit and J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan captured the imaginations of young readers. Milne and Shepard’s collaboration began under the auspices of a shared connection to Punch magazine, a hub for literary and artistic talent in early 20th-century Britain. Norman provides valuable insight into how this professional relationship blossomed into an enduring creative partnership, with Shepard’s delicate, evocative illustrations becoming inseparable from Milne’s gentle, whimsical prose.

A Story Shaped by War and Family Struggles

One of the book’s most striking elements is its depiction of the far-reaching impact of war on the creators’ lives. Both Milne and Shepard served in World War I, and Norman deftly examines how their wartime experiences influenced their creative output. The pastoral serenity of the Hundred Acre Wood, for example, can be seen as a response to the chaos and destruction they had witnessed.

Norman also delves deeply into the complicated dynamics of the Milne family. Christopher Robin Milne, the inspiration for the eponymous character, emerges as a poignant figure. Far from being a willing participant in his father’s literary success, Christopher struggled with the public’s conflation of his real-life identity with the fictionalized “Christopher Robin.” This unwanted fame strained his relationship with his parents and left lasting scars, as Norman illustrates with sensitivity and thorough research.

A Legacy Fraught with Ambivalence
Norman paints an unvarnished picture of the personal toll of Winnie the Pooh’s success. While A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard achieved immortality through their work, their relationships with their families and the world around them were deeply affected. Shepard’s role, often overshadowed by Milne’s authorship, is given due recognition, highlighting how his illustrations brought Pooh and his friends to life.

The book’s conclusion, featuring photographs of Christopher Robin’s childhood toys, serves as a bittersweet reminder of the enduring magic of Winnie the Pooh and the complex realities behind its creation. These images ground the fantastical stories in reality, underscoring the interplay of imagination and real-life inspiration.

Conclusion

The Creators of Winnie the Pooh is a richly detailed and emotionally resonant examination of the creative and familial forces behind a literary classic. Andrew Norman succeeds in offering readers a deeper appreciation for Milne and Shepard’s contributions to children’s literature while also presenting an unflinching look at the personal costs of fame. By contextualizing the creation of Winnie the Pooh within broader historical and personal narratives, the book invites readers to reflect on the often-overlooked humanity behind iconic works of art. For fans of the series and students of literary history alike, this is an essential read that enriches our understanding of a cultural treasure.

The Golden age of children’s literature began with Alice in wonderland (1865) and ended with Winnie the Pooh (1926h-and House at Pooh Corner (1928.)

This book is a history of that era and the creation of Winnie-the-Pooh. The facts are very entertaining and I learned a lot. Though told in a very dry fashion I still enjoyed the read.

A fascinating and fun look at the writer and illustrator of the original Winnie the Pooh stories. Can be read by anyone at any age, and even if you've never read the original stories, you'll come away having learned many new things.