介绍:
It is 90 years to the day since the story of Winnie the Pooh first appeared in print. On Christmas Eve 1925, the London Evening News published a story by writer A.A. Milne that brought the famous bear to life. Now a children's book about the real life bear that inspired the story is delighting readers everywhere.
"Finding Winnie" is a recently published children's picture book that tells the real life story of a man named Harry Colebourn and a bear named Winnie. It is written by Colebourn's great-granddaughter Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
During a recent interview in London, Mattick begins her family's story.
"So my great grandfather was a Canadian veterinarian. He lived in Canada at the start of World War One. He bought a bear cub, he named the bear Winnipeg after the Canadian city Winnpieg where he is from, Winnie for short. He took her on the train with him, on the ship across the Atlantic over to England where he was at the army camps and trained. "
Enlisted to go to the front lines in France, Colebourn asked the London zoo to care for his beloved friend. Endowed with a friendly nature, Winnie was allowed to receive visitors in her enclosure, something that would not be possible today.
"So while Winnie was at the London zoo, she became a star attraction. She had a lot of visitors because of her very friendly and well trained nature. But in particular A.A. Milne the author and his son Christopher Robin would come to the zoo to visit her. And Christopher Robin loved Winnie because she was so friendly and he renamed his stuffed animal, his stuffed bear from Edward to Winnie, and A.A. Milne started writing all kinds of stories about the adventures that Christopher Robin's stuffed animals would take and one of them of course was Winnie."
The name "Pooh" comes from a tame swan named by Christopher Robin, according to Egmont, publisher of "Finding Winnie".
A.A. Milne published the first Winnie-the-Pooh book in 1926. In 1961, Disney bought the rights to the stories and created a number of animated films.
After WWI, Colebourn decided to leave Winnie at London zoo, where she was very well settled. She remained a star attraction until her death in 1934.
Mattick's son Cole, named after his great-great grandfather Colebourn, is now three. As a mother, Mattick explains her reasons for publishing her family story.
"Finding Winnie' is a story that I have had in my head for a long time. It is something that I have always wanted to write. I knew that at some point I would probably have my own child and I thought a picture book would be an amazing way to share my incredible family story with my child".
The London zoo was Winnie's home for nearly 20 years, and it now has a statue of Colebourn and his bear cub.
After Winnie's death, her skull was donated to train medics. Doctors say Winnie lost all her teeth during her life due to gum diseases, and that her love of condensed milk and honey was to blame.
One can imagine she had more access to sweet treats than any bear in the wild would. It seems A.A. Milne did not veer too far from real life in this one particular aspect while writing about Winnie.
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