Winnie the Pooh

03-12-23 00 / episode: 321

When I was a boy I remember my grandma read Winnie the Pooh books to me. But it was never enough, and she didn't read them all. We were lucky once in a while to watch Winnie the Pooh as a cartoon on TV, but those were also pretty uncommon. As I grew up to an adult I began to realize just what kind of mixed feelings I had about Winnie the Pooh.

Introduction

Hi and welcome to the Les Perras podcast episode 321. These podcasts are an excellent way to practice extensive English listening and increase your listening vocabulary. This episode is about Winnie the Pooh.

Famous

Winnie the Pooh has been famous for about 100 years now. Mr Milne first wrote his book based on his experiences with his son Christopher, and he wrote the books in part for his son Christopher.

When

The first Winnie the Pooh story appeared on Christmas Eve 1925, so that's, around 98 years ago. Interestingly enough it was commissioned by London's evening news. So although Mr Milne might have used his family as inspiration, there was definitely a financial incentive there.

Inspiration

AA Milne was inspired by a teddy bear that his son Christopher owned. His son's name is Christopher and Christopher Robin in the story has the same name, and it was obviously coming from his son. The bear was also coming from his son's bear. On the other hand the illustration for the bear doesn't come from his son's bear. It comes from the illustrators son's bear. That was Mr Shepherd, and his son's bear was called Growler, so when you're looking at Winnie the Pooh you're really kind of looking at Growler, and not Winnie the Pooh

Sad story

Winnie the Pooh is actually a pretty sad story, because there's a lot of wistful points. There's a lot of referring to moments that cannot be recaptured. One such example is the chapter at the end of the book called The House at Pooh corner. In fact, its so sad that I almost found myself surprised when I was reading it aloud to my own sons. It inspires an almost inescapable wistful longing for good things that can never be recovered.

Sad real life story

then there's the whole situation with what happened between Mr Milne and his son. What happened was the story of Winnie the Pooh became an international best seller of a sort and then people wanted to meet the real Christopher. And the result was: a lot of damage was done to Christopher. Unfortunately Christopher never forgave his parents for that, and tried to never take any money from the Winnie the Pooh series. But it followed him throughout his whole life.

Where is Pooh now?

Winnie the pooh continues to inspire and entertain people today with new stories and animations coming out. The original Pooh Bear can now be found at the Polanski exhibition of the New York public libraries treasures. It has gone through a lot of adventures beginning from the original purchase at herod's department store in London. It's a well-used toy and it's now available for everyone to see. If you like listening to English for your extensive English listening

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Tell me if you have read any of the Winnie the Pooh books.