Winnie the Pooh Tales from the Forest

A.A.Milne’s Pooh stories still read well, with their occasionally somewhat arch humour forgivable in fiction published nearly a hundred years ago. He was also extremely good at light verse, and some of his best efforts also appear in these books. But now Jane Riordan, an otherwise gifted author, has been given the task once again of adding more stories plus a few extra poems to the existing canon. While as always she tries hard this authorised sequel brought out by Milne’s original publisher never quite comes off. This is despite the presence of Mark Burgess’s glowing illustrations in the style of E.H Shepard but with Christopher Robin now dressed in contemporary clothes and sporting a modern haircut.

Milne’s habit of occasionally breaking out into Capital Letters to make a humorous point is now seriously over-done. And Riordan can be repetitive, with the word ‘pyramid’ appearing eight times over just two pages. Her short poems, alas, would have been better omitted altogether. She introduces a new character called Carmen, a lively little dog inspired by an actual toy Milne took with him to the trenches in World War One as a mascot. But she has none of the gloomy depth of Eeyore, the touching timidity of Piglet, the self-delusion of Owl or the stumbling logic of Pooh. Merely rushing about roaring is no substitute for subtle character development.

Mark Burgess contributes an updated map of the original Hundred Acre Wood on the front and end cover pages. But young readers visiting Ashdown Forest in search of the famous Poohsticks bridge may be disappointed once there to find only a barely running stream rather than the flowing river that features in this well-meaning but only moderately successful book.