A.A. Milne. His life

by Ann Thwaite

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-smok-ing 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 favorite authors was sealed.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Autobiography

428 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 1990

About the author

Ann Thwaite is a British writer who is the author of five major biographies. AA Milne: His Life was the Whitbread Biography of the Year, 1990. Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape (Duff Cooper Prize, 1985) was described by John Carey as "magnificent - one of the finest literary biographies of our time". Glimpses of the Wonderful about the life of Edmund Gosse's father, Philip Henry Gosse, was picked out by D.J. Taylor in The Independent as one of the "Ten Best Biographies" ever. Her biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett was originally published as Waiting for the Party (1974) and reissued in 2020 with the title Beyond the Secret Garden, with a foreword by Jacqueline Wilson. Emily Tennyson, The Poet's Wife (1996) was reissued by Faber Finds for the Tennyson bicentenary in 2009.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I started to read this biography, I really knew very little about A.A. Milne. Of course, I knew he was the author of Winnie-the-Pooh and have loved his books and poems for children – as have my own children. I had a vague idea his son, Christopher Robin, made famous through those works for children, was not enamoured with his literary legacy. Lastly, I had read of his feud with P.G. Wodehouse, culminating in the satirical, “Rodney Gets a Relapse.” So, I had a whole host of half-known facts and rumours, but no real knowledge.

On the lookout for a biography about Milne, reviews and comments from other readers led me to this one, and I am so glad that it did. This is a clear, well written and sympathetic account of Milne’s life, which filled in an awful lot that I did not know and helped me to understand Milne and his legacy.

Milne was the youngest of three sons and, although he had a difficult relationship with his eldest brother, known as Barry, probably his closest relationship was with his other brother, Ken. The two remained firm friends, they did a lot of their early writing together and, when Ken became ill while still fairly young, Milne supported him, and his family, both financially and emotionally. Milne’s father was the headmaster of a school and one of Milne’s early teachers was H.G. Wells. His father was progressive and encouraged a love of learning, while also being extremely proud of his youngest son, Alan, who was extremely bright and forward for his age.

It is fair to say that Milne’s early life was fairly blessed. He did well at school and made the decision to try to become a writer. His early attempts suffered some setbacks, but then, just as it seemed he would need to go and get a job, he was offered a post at “Punch,” which not only gave him an income, but also meant his articles were going to find a home in print. Indeed, in his early career, that was what Milne was known as – for light, humorous verse, stories and articles.

He married his wife Daphne and all seemed as though it was going to carry on in the same way, happy, light, cheerful and successful, until the advent of the First World War. Although a pacifist, Milne ended up at the battle of the Somme and the things he saw certainly stayed with him. However, once he did return home, he was upset to find that he was not welcomed back to “Punch” with open arms. Milne was always aware that he needed his wages – he did not have the comfort of having an independent income. There was some bad feeling when Milne left for war on half wages and, when he was unable to give up the chance of having a play put on in London, it was felt that he should have been writing for “Punch” and not the stage…

Milne and Daphne had only one child, their son, Christopher Robin. From all I have read in this book, it seemed that Milne idolised his son and that he was – far from being distant from him – extremely close for a man of that class and that era. In fact he was jealous of Christopher Robin’s Nanny and enjoyed taking his son on walks, playing games with him and every letter that he wrote seemed to have included news of his son – known as Billy Moon – and his exploits.

Christopher Robin did have a teddy bear, but it was Milne’s boredom during a house party, combined with a request for him to write something for a children’s magazine, which led to him writing what would become, “When We Were Very Young.” Milne had had huge success on the stage, as well as being a popular writer, but nothing prepared him for the success of his children’s books. The amount of books he sold was amazing and the success of “Winnie the Pooh,” sealed his fate. He only wrote four works for children, but they would be what defined him.

This biography really fleshes out Milne as a man and I found that I liked him far more than I thought I would. He was slightly prudish, moralistic, tended to hold a grudge and enjoyed crosswords, golf and cricket. He obviously loved his wife, although they drifted into slightly separate lives as they grew older, but it was sad that he did not realise how using Christopher Robin in his books would be disliked, and resented, by his son as he got older. To be fair, Milne did not realise – could not have realised – how phenomenally successful Pooh would be. In hindsight, it might have been a good idea to have used a fictitious name, rather than that of his son.

Although Milne fought against being known solely for his works for children, it is obviously that we remember him for. I hope that he would be proud of his legacy. His writing has given pleasure to generations of readers and they remain delightful, warm and wonderful reads.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milne was not just the creator of the Pooh stories,he was a humorist, playwright and author. He wanted to be a great writer and came to resent the fact that his success and fame was so clearly linked to his books for children. This well-researched biography gives a great insight into Milne's life and his family relationships, including of course, his most famous one, with his son Christopher Robin.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was aware that Milne was a playwright, and humourist, but I had no idea how well known he was in his time for these things. As we all know, he achieved huge success with his four children's books, to the extent that this is pretty much all people know him for nowadays. This is something he came to regret, not wanting to be known only for that. This is a well researched biography, and I felt I got to know him better and like him.

I have a few of Milnes adult books which I'm looking forward to, but I'd also like to re-read the children's books too. I (like everyone else), used to love these books as a child.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a biography of Alan Alexander Milne, the writer who created the teddy bear character Winnie-the-Pooh and the rest of his friendly menagerie in the fictional Hundred Acre Wood. It tracks the author’s life from birth in 1882 to his experiences as a Tom Brown-esque public schoolboy with H.G. Wells as one of his teachers, to studying mathematics at Cambridge, where he became involved in student magazines and after graduating, joined the long-running satire magazine Punch, and fought in World War I. In his professional life, he wrote a wide range of novels, plays and essays for adults, but is best remembered for his few books of poems and stories for children, material he produced in the late 1920s, and which overshadowed the rest of his career until his death in 1956.

Ann Thwaite provides a very detailed biography, right down to the substance of meals, high school cricket scores, and the exact text of his public spats with politicians of the time and fellow writers like P.G. Wodehouse, eerily similar to the arguments that people have on social media today. Ms Thwaite’s research is impeccable, and her writing style usually engaging, but she reports so much trivia for the sake of completeness that it sometimes seems to crowd out the main narrative and makes the book longer than it needs to be. I have no idea why publisher Random House chose to darken the famous portrait of Milne and his son Christopher Robin, then print it on a black dust jacket, as it unnerves the viewer with its creepy, unnatural appearance and doesn’t really summarise the content like it should.

Nevertheless, I liked the content of the book and would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed the Pooh stories or is interested in twentieth century literature.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating book into the life of this English author whose life straddled the 19th and 20th centuries. Alan Alexander Milne was a Queen's Scholar and entered an elite prep school at the age of 11. This is what was on his entrance exam in 1893 (at age 11!):

In addition to Greek and Latin translations ("It is interesting to see that only a few years later the Headmaster of Westminster was already worrying over the fact that Greek was becoming rare in the preparatory schools. 'This is one more concession to the principle that the able and willing must shorten his stride to that of the indolent and incapable.'" (p. 49)

"There was also Euclid and Algebra and, as if that wasn't high enough, another paper called Higher Mathematics. Alan had 'done' Trigonometry, Analytical Conics, Statics and Dynamics. He felt there was nothing he could not do. Then there was a General Paper (not more than seven questions to be attempted), which covered a variety of areas of knowledge:

1) Trace carefully either the career of John the Baptist or Joshua's conquest of Palestine.
2) Give a short account of Athens under Pericles.
3) What do you know of the Mutilation of the Hermae, the Gerousia, the Olympic Games, the Helots, Ostracism?
4) Who were the following: Warwick the King-maker, Christopher Columbus, Marie Antoinette, Isaac Newton, Prince Bismarck, Peter the Great?
5) Through what straits and seas would a steam ship successively pass
a) between the mouth of the River Don and Southampton?
b) between Venice and Bombay?
6) Explain fully Trade Winds, Land and Sea Breezes, Forced Draught, the Solar System, Centre of Gravity.

Finally, there were ten quotations. The boys had to 'identify allusions' and name the authors.

It was the sort of examination that made H. G. Wells lament the state of English education. But it was an examination paper eleven-year-old Alan Milne relished. He would always say that, given the right conditions, the right teaching, there is nothing small children are not eager to learn. 'And then we send them to your schools and in two years, three years, four years, you have killed all their enthusiasm.' It was an unpopular speech at a dinner of headmasters thirty years later." (p. 50)

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been a fan of A.A. Milne. He is best known for being the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh and I have always felt it's a shame that people know him more from Disney than from his own writings. Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner are clever, witty, and charming - books that really the someone of any age can enjoy, and his two books of poems are lovely as well. Then I discovered The Sunny Side and got a taste for his essays and fell in love with him as a writer even more. There is so much more to this man than most people know and the interesting thing is that, he disliked the fact that he came to be known as a "children's author" rather than just as an author.

This book delves into his life from his early childhood at the school for boys his parents ran (H.G. Wells was his science teacher!!!!!), to his life in university, and his beginnings as a humorous essay writer all the way through two world wars, his life as a playwright (this was how was best known through most of his living life - at least until Pooh came along), and his ups and downs as a novelist, pacifist, father, and husband.

Thwaite's style is engaging and the life of this man, though not filled with terribly exciting events, is still fascinating to read about.

I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good biography.

[trishtrash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rich, well-researched, engaging biography of a writer whose breadth of work extends far beyond the few children's stories for which he is so famous. Her subject, of course, is easy to relate to - Milne was not an altogether completely nice man, perhaps, but he was a gentleman, a wit - in writing, most certainly - a family man, an idealist, and best of all from a biographers viewpoint, had a life with enough facets to keep a reader more than interested while waiting to hear about Pooh. In fact, by the end of her book, one sympathises with Milne's position on the bear, and resolves to read at least one other book or play by the man, just to even the score a little.

Thwaite shows us the whole man, unapologetically; His enmity of Wodehouse during the war was surprising and saddening; more so - despite Thwaite's attempt not to bias the reader in the matter of Milne's relationship with his son - is the knowledge that the relationship between this well-loved children's author and the son who's fictional namesake so delights us, soured so completely. It seems a waste and a shame, and while it is not Thwaite's fault, the fact remains that despite the excellence of this biography, I would have preferred not to have read it at all.

[Julia Simpson-Urrutia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up with A.A. Milne. During his lifetime, his books were instant successes and sold in ever-increasing numbers. Four years after Milne's death, the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh was made available in Latin and sold 100,000 copies in record time. By 1973, Greek was added to the list of languages in which Pooh could be read, bringing the number to 25. The list includes Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Croatian, Serbian, Latvian, Icelandic and Esperanto.

Towards the end of his life, this reputation left a bitter taste in Milne's mouth. Success was lovely, but it was not the kind of success Milne wanted to be remembered for. His son, whom he made the central figure in these books, was no longer speaking to him. These are two of the puzzling facts that will keep the reader turning the pages numbering past 450.

Thwaite's work contributes weightily to an understanding of this author because she asks, directly or indirectly, such fascinating questions as what kind of child is it who grows up to retain enough of childhood at middle age to write books that wildly delight the public while nauseating of some the more serious intellects of his time? Why did Milne's pampered and beloved wife practically abandon him in his long final illness? And why did Christopher Robin, whose father adored him, turn distant and cold at the end of his father's life?

A.A.Milne's father was a schoolmaster who taught at and ran a school that would be considered enlighted by today's standards. One of the teachers on staff was H.G. Wells, who would become one of Milne's steadfast supporters and loyal correspondents. Born in 1882, when his mother Maria was already 41 and her husband John approximately 36, A.A. Milne was the last and most intellectually gifted of three sons. The casting reads like a fairy tales, with the eldest being the dark (wicked) one, the second being good-hearted but physically ill, and the last doing all he could to save the day trying to keep an overactive ego chained down. Maria dressed her boys like little Lords Fauntleroy and abdicated all important decision making to her husband despite having been a teacher and writer of free thought pamphlets before her marriage. There is evidence, writes Thwaite, of great love between Milne's parents.

Thwaite gives brief glimpses of a troubled side to Milne's character, as for instance when A.A. Milne once wrote that although his mother always said, "Sons are good enough for me," yet "As a child, I gave my heart to my father. We loved Mama too, though not so dearly . . . I don't think I ever really knew her." Thwaite goes on to expose other aloof comments made by Alan Alexander Milne pertaining to the love he felt from his mother.

As for the brothers, Alan appears to have loved Ken best. and it was with him that he first started composing light verse as a teenager. It was actually Ken who started his younger brother on that road. Alan was supposed to become a mathematician while Ken thought of himself as the writer of the family.

Imagine Ken's jealousy when A.A.Milne become the editor of Granta magazine and, being its most frequent writer, attracted the attention of R.C. Lehmann, editor of Punch, a magazine which occupied a preeminent place in the writing world in those days! He accused Alan of being better than him at everything and stealing away his title of "writer" of the family. Ken continued to write, and of course, he is not remembered save by researcher writers like Thwaite. Alan helped support his brother through his illness and his brother's family after Ken died.

Another strange relationship was with Daphne De Selincourt, who became Milne's wife. Thwaite presents little to persuade the reader that Daphne's warmth was the inspiration for Pooh. Nonetheless, she earned her husband's undying devotion with her continual praise of his books and other writing, including plays that have fallen into disuse. What have survived are the Pooh stories. It was not A.A. Milne's goal to be primarily associated, as he was after middle age, with such twaddle as "Christopher Robin goes/Hoppity, hoppity/Hoppity, hoppity ho/ Whenever I tell him politely to stop, he/ Says he can't possibly stop."

The verses, like the Pooh stories, were inspired and for Christopher Robin, naturally. Milne would have preferred to be remembered for his plays, but we usually don't get the dreams we yearn for. Meanwhile, during his childhood, Christopher Robin was the world's most famous and sought-after little boy. The books became for him, as for his father, an almost intolerable burden.

The reader will easily get past these two somewhat spoiled egos of father and son through the delight of so many fascinating surprises.

[Madly Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A.A. Milne will always be remembered for writing Winnie the Pooh stories, but he wrote many other things, including over 60 plays and screenplays and seven novels, not to mention his work for Punch, his collection of stories for both adults and children, his poetry for both adults and children, as well as a book against war and his own autobiography. He was the consummate working writing.

He, known as Blue, his wife Dorothy whom he called Daphne or Daff, his son Christopher Robin, whom he called Billy Moon, were all idiosyncratic and interesting people. At one time Milne was the richest author on the planet, that's how much money Winnie the Pooh and three other related books made, so much that he left a fortune after he died to his family, the Garrick Club in London, and two other institutions. During WW2, he was probably one of the most beloved authors ever. During his lifetime, he was generous, supporting his brother Ken and Ken's family, (Ken had TB and died early of it) supporting other friends, giving loans out to people who never paid him back. He, himself, was hard to pin down as a personality. He was private, lived a life of rituals, enjoying writing, watching his wife garden, and playing golf. He was not a big public figure, preferring his country home in Cotchford, lots of walking, and a meal of ham and eggs and cherries. I suppose his one vice was smoking a pipe. He had many friends, lots of them authors and he loved to write letters and wrote them daily. DAILY.

Up until 1948, when his son married his first cousin, Milne had a close relationship with him but afterwards it was difficult. I think much of this was due to Christopher Milne's pride and his marrying someone his parents did not approve of and then moving in 1951 to Dartmouth to open a bookstore and make his own life independently of his father and the Winnie the Pooh legacy. By this time, Milne was older and experiencing bad health. He saw Christopher three times before he died in 1956. When one considers his ill health, a serious stroke and 3 years in and out of hospitals and care homes, it is obvious that distance and illness really separated the two. However, there was some bitterness between Christopher Milne and his mother when she sold Cotchford Farm and gave all his father's possessions away. To understand Christopher's story I think it's best to read The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne. After his father's funeral, Christopher never saw his mother again and she lived another 15 years. Christopher had his own issues to deal with. His daughter was born three months after his father's death, and had cerebral palsy and other rare conditions where she required constant care and he was making a living running a bookstore he owned. Christopher did inherit a fortune which he used to care for his daughter and others who suffered disabilities. In looking back at my research, I think father and son were a lot alike, but that predicament shaped their lives as well as their very private personalities. Both were idiosyncratic, full of self pride and independence, and talented. But I think they loved one another. The son was more emotional, had a stammer, liked to work with his hands and resented certain issues, but nothing out of the normal after I read and thought about it. The mother was also extremely idiosyncratic and set in her ways. When three people are set in their ways and never deviate, life can be both funny and sad. And with the Milne family, it was both funny and sad. Sometimes it was plain bizarre.

Milne was a writer first, there is no doubt. This biography really shows how he worked, how much, and when and where. It explores nearly every single piece he wrote and that is its focus. In his life Milne depended on his wife a lot for feedback and praise, outside one slight love affair and flirtation, he was kind and devoted to her, turning a blind eye at her much more adventurous lifestyle. She spent a great deal of time in the USA, living off and on with another man. In the end she took care of him. I know, it sounds weird, but they were of a certain time and had a peculiar relationship. Milne's best friend was his brother Ken, whom he adored and took care of. HIs death saddened Milne and left a hole in the writer's life. Everyone else, outside his Billy Moon, were really associates who were writers, especially those at the Garrick Club.

Looking at the big picture, I think he lived an incredible life, the kind of life many writers would want. Writing was how he expressed his emotions, how he shared his feelings. And he wrote well. And earned a great deal of money which never changed how he lived and loved and wrote.

Nice biography, though the print was so small, I almost went blind reading it. Laughing.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up after watching the film goodbye Christopher Robin and my interest was piqued about this writers life. I have to say that I really liked how the author took through all the ups and downs of Milnes life and I felt I really got to know him and the way his mind had worked through his time at punch and those famous books about a little bear called pooh. It has now made me want to read more about Christopher robins life and I will be picking up his books very soon. Don’t expect a lot of information on Christopher or pooh in this book it is ultimately about Milne so if you want to learn more about this man then this is book for you.

[Lyn Lockwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A detailed and thorough account of a complex and fascinating man who lived through two world wars and saw huge changes in the world around him. His attitude toward the Pooh books and children's poetry that made him so rich and famous waxed and waned. His plays and journalism are no longer read and are long forgotten. His relationship with his son Christopher Robin gradually declined, both clearly so affected in many ways by the impact of Milne's writing. Ann Thwaite is a children's writer herself and I loved her gentle commentary on different aspects of Milne's life that lifted the book from just being a straightforward chronology into a rich and thoughtful account of a fascinating life.

[Peter Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography,well written with sympathy but also with honesty,not hiding his flaws or his strengths.Quite surprised he had such a successful career as a dramatist.I read this after seeing the movie”Goodbye Christopher Robin” to see how accurate the movie had been.Largely it was true with only some events being exaggerated but not untrue,such as his son’s WWII injury and return.So a good read but long and detailed so by the end you do have a good understanding of him,as much as you can understand anyone other than yourself.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives an incredibly detailed view of A.A. Milne's life. I was surprised at the rather tragic turn his life took after the much celebrated Winnie the Pooh books were published. He lived a full life indeed and will always be remembered.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenally in-depth look at the life of A.A. Milne, that is also notable for the fact that it was the one biography sanctioned by Christopher Milne, who told the author to write it as if he was not going to read it. It is a wonderful accomplishment and I am glad it is still around.

[Tina Reitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the movie book would be easier to read.

[~mad]

I want to read this but just couldn't get into...maybe later

[Inma Ranea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leí este libro para hacer un ensayo sobre el autor y su obra "Winnie the Pooh".
Viene todo muy detallado y como muy buena información.
Recomendable si quieres saber más sobre el autor y sus obras.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting biography of Alan Milne, creator and author of the children's classics "Winnie the Pooh". Alan's childhood was idyllic. His father ran a boys school and treated the boys (his own children as well as the students) with love and affection. Alan's older brother Ken was his best friend and close companion growing up, and because Ken was always loving and kind to Alan even when his own abilities were overshadowed, they remained very close until Ken's untimely death from TB at the age of 47.

Alan Milne came to hate Winnie the Pooh, even while the children's books made his fortune. His son, Christopher Robin, known to the family as Billy Moon (Moon was his baby attempt to pronounce "Milne"), also came to hate the series and hate his part in the poems and stories. (imagine going to boarding school and hearing the taunts of the other boys as they recited "Christopher Robin goes hoppity-hoppity-hop" to him.) Alan Milne was never taken seriously as a playwright or author after he wrote the Pooh books. Forever would he be seen only as a children's author and writer of light verse. Billy Moon, Alan's son, became estranged from his father and after his father's death did not see his mother for the remaining 15 years of her life.

I remember reading about many child actors who ended up badly when they became adults, or ended up in court against their parents struggling to escape from their management. It seems that Billy Moon fits into that category also, sadly.

[James Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the background of Alan (A.A.) Milne, the author and playwright who later became world famous for Winnie the Pooh to be very interesting. He grew up in the 1880s with his older brothers in the small British schoolhouse where his father, John (J.V.) Milne, was the headmaster. Because J.V. came from poverty, he lacked qualifications and was only able to become headmaster at rougher schools. Yet he led these with affection and good humor.
This biography provides other fascinating details about the life of the man who wrote much and lived a literary life. It is a good introduction to the man behind the famous children's stories.

[Amy Lively · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good information but there were too many places where the author simply reprinted Milne's letters. There was entirely too much jumping around - in a biography, stick to chronological order. I also found it annoying when Thwaite interjected herself into the book ("now we will look at…). The book did make we wan to read more of Milne's work, though.

[Gwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the bits I read of this book. Milne's father ran a small school, and the commentary on educational philosophy is still relevant. The book had been lent to me by a student's father (two years ago!), and I had to return it, as they were moving away. Ah well, perhaps someday...

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like this authors writing style.