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Goodbye Christopher Robin: A. A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh
Goodbye Christopher Robin: A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh is drawn from Ann Thwaite’s Whitbread Award-winning biography of A. A. Milne, one of England’s most successful writers.
After serving in the First World War, Milne wrote a number of well-received plays, but his greatest triumph came when he created Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and, of course, Christopher Robin, the adventurous little boy based on his own son. Goodbye Christopher Robin inspired the film directed by Simon Curtis and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie and Kelly Macdonald. It offers the reader a glimpse into the relationship between Milne and the real-life Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired the magical world of the Hundred Acre Wood.
Goodbye Christopher Robin is a story of celebrity, a story of both the joys and pains of success and, ultimately, the story of how one man created a series of enchanting tales that brought hope and comfort to an England ravaged by the First World War.
After serving in the First World War, Milne wrote a number of well-received plays, but his greatest triumph came when he created Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and, of course, Christopher Robin, the adventurous little boy based on his own son. Goodbye Christopher Robin inspired the film directed by Simon Curtis and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie and Kelly Macdonald. It offers the reader a glimpse into the relationship between Milne and the real-life Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired the magical world of the Hundred Acre Wood.
Goodbye Christopher Robin is a story of celebrity, a story of both the joys and pains of success and, ultimately, the story of how one man created a series of enchanting tales that brought hope and comfort to an England ravaged by the First World War.
254 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2017
102 people are currently reading
4687 people want to read
About the author
Ann Thwaite
54 books26 followersAnn 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
December 13, 2017
This was beautiful. And thought-provoking. And yet, not at all what I had expected.
The synopsis (and even the title) makes it sound like this book focuses on the complicated relationship between Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh; between fact and fiction. I thought I was about to read an in-depth description of the Pooh books in Christopher Milne's life; of the placement of an actual child in a fictional world and the inevitable repercussions it would make.
But no.
This book is actually an excerpt from an earlier A. A. Milne-biography. A good biography, at that. But still, its main focus is A. A. Milne and his way to success; his struggle with his fame, and his own aversion towards the Pooh-books. Christopher Robin's afterlife is only briefly described in the last 20-30 pages.
I didn't get what I had hoped. But Ann Thwaite is a good writer, and if you want to know how the Pooh-books came into existence, this book is a well written and historically correct candidate.
The synopsis (and even the title) makes it sound like this book focuses on the complicated relationship between Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh; between fact and fiction. I thought I was about to read an in-depth description of the Pooh books in Christopher Milne's life; of the placement of an actual child in a fictional world and the inevitable repercussions it would make.
But no.
This book is actually an excerpt from an earlier A. A. Milne-biography. A good biography, at that. But still, its main focus is A. A. Milne and his way to success; his struggle with his fame, and his own aversion towards the Pooh-books. Christopher Robin's afterlife is only briefly described in the last 20-30 pages.
I didn't get what I had hoped. But Ann Thwaite is a good writer, and if you want to know how the Pooh-books came into existence, this book is a well written and historically correct candidate.
October 17, 2017
4/4.5 This was such a great biography! I liked that it coverered a bit of Milne's life before he wrote Winnie the Pooh as well, and having read in the intro that this author actually wrote a biography of his life (where this one is more focused on the childrens books/Winnie the Pooh years) I will definitely keep an eye out for that. I'd also be interested to read Christopher Milnes autobiographies, to gain a bit more of his perspective. Overall I really enjoyed this read, I learned lots about Milne I hadn't known- he was friends with J.M Barrie, he didn't want to write about fairies, he was a pretty succesful playwright, Roo was lost and the first Piglet damaged and replaced, and so much more! As someone who grew up reading Milne's childrens books, it was fascinating to learn a bit about the story behind their creation, and the impact they had on Milne and of course on Christopher Robin (or Billy Moon, as I learned he was known!) I'm really excited for the upcoming film that follows the story of this book, and definitely recomend this as a bio or anyone interested in authors or childrens lit.
December 1, 2017
This is a short volume by Ann Thwaite about the publishing of the “Pooh” stories. The author previously wrote a biography on A.A. Milne and a book “on Pooh”. This book was a short, quick and disappointing read for me.
I was looking for rendering of the real life Christopher Robin’s relationship to his real life father. The cover picture implies it will be here and the blurb says there will be a “glimpse into the relationship”. The term “glimpse” is accurate since “Goodbye…” is not explained and Thwaite sticks mostly with the sub-title.
There is a lot of filler in this book. There are reproduced letters to and from publishers, excerpts from reviews and dialog that was “reported” (maybe Milne’s diary?). Parts of pages are wasted to sales reports and pages are given to letters of appreciation and the dedications Milne wrote in books. This is space where I’d have liked to see something more personal, such as how Daff (Mrs. Milne) actually brought her son’s toys to life. (There is no index, so I can’t go back and find it, but think there is ½ page on this.)
You do get a rough outline of Milne’s life. He was a successful contributor to “Punch” and a known playwright when he got the notion to publish children’s literature. Based on his WWI experience he was a pacifist and later a supporter of appeasement. He had a brother with tuberculosis whom he supported. The Milne’s seem to live in a bubble. They go to the theatre, lunch, have tea and farm out the raising of their only child to a nanny.
As far as Milne’s relationship with the “real” Christopher Robin, maybe there isn’t one. Daff seems more interested in her garden than her son. Alan (father) was preoccupied with his writing. As an adult, Christopher said his father may have been jealous of his nanny and the relationship he had with her.
The Milne’s seem oblivious to the seeming exploitation of their son. Alan said the real boy, who carried the name and look of the made up boy, went by the nick name Moon, so there couldn’t have been a relationship in his mind about the two boys. Daff created and marketed a recording of the real Christopher Robin reading from Pooh – could she not envision the taunting her son would receive over it in his boarding school? Did she care? Milne’s relationships with his brother and E. H. Shepherd (Pooh’s illustrator) seem stronger than his bond with his son.
The prose can be stilted, but stilted seems to be the life of this family. There are a few b&w photos. The most striking is the photo of the real and the imagined Christopher Robin side by side. There are no footnotes and (as mentioned before) there is no index.
March 23, 2023
A condensed biography of A.A. Milne, the author of the best selling Winnie-the-Pooh series.
Since we had a Winnie-the-Pooh themed nursery for our babies, Pooh will always hold a special place in my heart, and I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, the writing was stilted and plain and much of the details boring and unrelated to Pooh. Both Milne and his son seemed to be very ungrateful about the success and subsequent wealth from the Pooh series. Additionally, I must admit that I did not read the entire book because of the reasons above. I don't usually count a book as read if I haven't read all of it but this time I'm making an exception so I can record my thoughts and opinions. In fact, the only reason I read as much as I did was because I was too lazy to get out of bed to grab a different book haha.
Goodbye A.A. Milne. I will always love Pooh and his friends in the 100 Aker Wood, but I'm not so sure about you.
Location: England
I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Since we had a Winnie-the-Pooh themed nursery for our babies, Pooh will always hold a special place in my heart, and I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, the writing was stilted and plain and much of the details boring and unrelated to Pooh. Both Milne and his son seemed to be very ungrateful about the success and subsequent wealth from the Pooh series. Additionally, I must admit that I did not read the entire book because of the reasons above. I don't usually count a book as read if I haven't read all of it but this time I'm making an exception so I can record my thoughts and opinions. In fact, the only reason I read as much as I did was because I was too lazy to get out of bed to grab a different book haha.
Goodbye A.A. Milne. I will always love Pooh and his friends in the 100 Aker Wood, but I'm not so sure about you.
Location: England
I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
November 18, 2017
I thought i was a good book, didnt seem good til i got to chapter 3. I love how incitful it is on how Winnie the Pooh came to be and how Christopher Robin came to be friends with Pooh and his friends.
March 31, 2018
I wanted to love this book, and perhaps it is a gem to those who love history of literature. But I just love Pooh, who always teaches me something and makes me happy. This book felt very very sad.
October 15, 2017
A well-written, myth-busting biography about Alan Milne, and by extention about Winnie-the-Pooh and the man and fiction that was his son, Christopher Robin.
The name (and related film) might lead you to think the book is about Milne's relationship with his son, and though this is explored in detail, the plain facts of the matter only appear in the closing section of the book.
Read this book if you want a shorter version of Ann Thwaite's award-winning biography; look online if you want a quick (but less accurate) answer about how Pooh came to be and Milne's relationship with his son.
The name (and related film) might lead you to think the book is about Milne's relationship with his son, and though this is explored in detail, the plain facts of the matter only appear in the closing section of the book.
Read this book if you want a shorter version of Ann Thwaite's award-winning biography; look online if you want a quick (but less accurate) answer about how Pooh came to be and Milne's relationship with his son.
July 5, 2018
A movie inspired read.
January 5, 2018
Let me start with a disclosure: I’m not a casual Winnie-the-Pooh fan. I’m a Winnie-the-Pooh collector-fanatic, and I have been my whole life. Perhaps my first conscious goal and milestone achievement was reading the Pooh stories by myself, with my own Pooh Bears by my side. The fact that A.A. Milne was a magazine writer surely had some influence on my desire to become a news reporter. When in the late 1980’s I read Milne was a pacifist, I sought out his other writings in the dusty stacks of various university libraries. My point is: I know more about Milne and Pooh than the average person, so this review may interest other fanatics/collectors most. I should add that I absolutely adored the movie “Goodbye Christopher Robin.”
From the title of the book and the cover art, I thought this book “Goodbye Christopher Robin A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh” would be a re-telling of the movie “Goodbye Christopher Robin.” It is not. It is a shortened/updated version of Ann Thwaite’s definitive 1990 Milne biography “A.A. Milne The Man Behind Winnie-The-Pooh.”
I have to admit with some embarrassment that when Thwaite’s original Milne biography came out 27 years ago---as much as I loved Pooh and Milne-- I had some difficulty getting through the book. She seemed to thoroughly cover every major writing of Milne’s, and at that point I’d only read a couple of non-Pooh works. I think she has read them and analyzed them all! Thwaite knows her subject so well she sprinkles in a lot of references to people or events with which I’m just unfamiliar. Perhaps the problem is I don’t know British culture very well, or the age gap between Thwaite and me.
The happy discovery in reading “Goodbye Christopher Robin” as an abridged and updated version of the original biography is that it is now much easier to fill in my knowledge gaps because of Google. Some references I had to google included: Meccano (a construction set created in Liverpool); seven-league boots (magic boots in European folklore that help a character gain speed); Michael Arlen and Gilbert Frankau (writers living in England with whom Milne apparently did not wish to socialize).
While the movie “Goodbye Christopher Robin” focuses on how Milne’s attempts to deal with the aftermath of war inadvertently lead him to write the “Winnie-the-Pooh” books, and how the fame of those books affected his family, the book “Goodbye Christopher Robin” is more a chronical of Milne’s writing life (though the focus is on the time Milne wrote the Pooh books and does not delve as deeply into other works as the larger biography). The reader will find out what projects Milne was working on when, how they were received, what he may have been thinking at the time as expressed in letters or published interviews. It seemed to be a quite privileged life: writing back and forth to other famous writers from the time, worrying from time-to-time about servants he employed from cooks to gardeners, etc, and writing to Christopher in boarding school. That his life was so privileged should not be a surprise, given the nannies and gardeners in Milne’s poetry. Perhaps the realization does make me adore him a little less, yet I’m still fascinated by all the environmental ingredients that led Milne to write the books I so love. Oh, and to imagine a writer’s life—to make one’s living contemplating deeply and then going on book tour and doing media interviews—certainly, is an attractive subject for exploration.
Some may think all the details in the book slow down the pace, but I rather like reading about the sales figures of the Pooh books, or that in the first edition Kanga was mistakenly gendered as a “he.”
As a history buff and a former newspaper reporter, I’m in awe over the immersive research Thwaite did to produce the original biography, and thus the shortened version, as well. She quotes extensively from letters Milne wrote to his brother Ken, and from reviews of Milne’s work, and--when appropriate---Milne’s and Christopher Robin Milne’s own writings. There’s no doubt about it, Thwaite knows more about Milne and the business of Pooh than anyone.
(When I watched the movie credits for “Goodbye Christopher Robin” I was filled with delectation (a vocabulary word I learned, p.245) to see that not only had Thwaite been a consultant on the movie—which, I think, did help the movie add some authenticity; she also made a cameo appearance in the pageant scene. I can’t wait to see the movie a third time so I can look for her in that scene!)
If you are a Pooh fanatic and want to know more about the rise in Pooh’s popularity, I’d recommend Thwaite’s “The Brilliant Career of Winnie-the-Pooh.” If you want to know more about Milne, Thwaite’s shortened biography “Goodbye Christopher Robin” is a good place to start. I enjoyed the book enough that I definitely want to go back and re-read the original “A.A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh.”
Three cheers for Pooh, for Milne, and for Thwaite!
From the title of the book and the cover art, I thought this book “Goodbye Christopher Robin A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh” would be a re-telling of the movie “Goodbye Christopher Robin.” It is not. It is a shortened/updated version of Ann Thwaite’s definitive 1990 Milne biography “A.A. Milne The Man Behind Winnie-The-Pooh.”
I have to admit with some embarrassment that when Thwaite’s original Milne biography came out 27 years ago---as much as I loved Pooh and Milne-- I had some difficulty getting through the book. She seemed to thoroughly cover every major writing of Milne’s, and at that point I’d only read a couple of non-Pooh works. I think she has read them and analyzed them all! Thwaite knows her subject so well she sprinkles in a lot of references to people or events with which I’m just unfamiliar. Perhaps the problem is I don’t know British culture very well, or the age gap between Thwaite and me.
The happy discovery in reading “Goodbye Christopher Robin” as an abridged and updated version of the original biography is that it is now much easier to fill in my knowledge gaps because of Google. Some references I had to google included: Meccano (a construction set created in Liverpool); seven-league boots (magic boots in European folklore that help a character gain speed); Michael Arlen and Gilbert Frankau (writers living in England with whom Milne apparently did not wish to socialize).
While the movie “Goodbye Christopher Robin” focuses on how Milne’s attempts to deal with the aftermath of war inadvertently lead him to write the “Winnie-the-Pooh” books, and how the fame of those books affected his family, the book “Goodbye Christopher Robin” is more a chronical of Milne’s writing life (though the focus is on the time Milne wrote the Pooh books and does not delve as deeply into other works as the larger biography). The reader will find out what projects Milne was working on when, how they were received, what he may have been thinking at the time as expressed in letters or published interviews. It seemed to be a quite privileged life: writing back and forth to other famous writers from the time, worrying from time-to-time about servants he employed from cooks to gardeners, etc, and writing to Christopher in boarding school. That his life was so privileged should not be a surprise, given the nannies and gardeners in Milne’s poetry. Perhaps the realization does make me adore him a little less, yet I’m still fascinated by all the environmental ingredients that led Milne to write the books I so love. Oh, and to imagine a writer’s life—to make one’s living contemplating deeply and then going on book tour and doing media interviews—certainly, is an attractive subject for exploration.
Some may think all the details in the book slow down the pace, but I rather like reading about the sales figures of the Pooh books, or that in the first edition Kanga was mistakenly gendered as a “he.”
As a history buff and a former newspaper reporter, I’m in awe over the immersive research Thwaite did to produce the original biography, and thus the shortened version, as well. She quotes extensively from letters Milne wrote to his brother Ken, and from reviews of Milne’s work, and--when appropriate---Milne’s and Christopher Robin Milne’s own writings. There’s no doubt about it, Thwaite knows more about Milne and the business of Pooh than anyone.
(When I watched the movie credits for “Goodbye Christopher Robin” I was filled with delectation (a vocabulary word I learned, p.245) to see that not only had Thwaite been a consultant on the movie—which, I think, did help the movie add some authenticity; she also made a cameo appearance in the pageant scene. I can’t wait to see the movie a third time so I can look for her in that scene!)
If you are a Pooh fanatic and want to know more about the rise in Pooh’s popularity, I’d recommend Thwaite’s “The Brilliant Career of Winnie-the-Pooh.” If you want to know more about Milne, Thwaite’s shortened biography “Goodbye Christopher Robin” is a good place to start. I enjoyed the book enough that I definitely want to go back and re-read the original “A.A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh.”
Three cheers for Pooh, for Milne, and for Thwaite!
February 17, 2025
Am interesting book about how The Winnie the Pooh books came to be.
July 10, 2018
It’s not often I give books a five-star rating on here, but this autobiography of one of my favourite children’s authors is worthy of it. Anne Thwaite is brilliant.
*Further thoughts coming soon*
*Further thoughts coming soon*
February 23, 2025
Somehow missed seeing the movie adaptation when it came out in 2017 so I'll have to rent it now that I've read the book.
Winnie-the-Pooh has been a lifelong obsession for me so I enjoy reading fiction and non-fiction Pooh related material, but I had not read anything yet by Ann Thwaite.
Understandably, there's a lot of references here to British literary and cultural peers of A.A. Milne's time - many of whom I had no awareness so some of this book was a bit lost on me.
This book abridges content from the author's full A.A. Milne biography and includes a preface from one of the film's screenplay writers - I think this edition was quite sufficient for my tastes.
This book fulfilled the 2025 PopSugar prompt #41 - A book by the oldest author in your TBR pile [I'm interpreting this prompt as oldest living - fairly confident I don't have anyone who beats Ann Thwaite at age 92].
Winnie-the-Pooh has been a lifelong obsession for me so I enjoy reading fiction and non-fiction Pooh related material, but I had not read anything yet by Ann Thwaite.
Understandably, there's a lot of references here to British literary and cultural peers of A.A. Milne's time - many of whom I had no awareness so some of this book was a bit lost on me.
This book abridges content from the author's full A.A. Milne biography and includes a preface from one of the film's screenplay writers - I think this edition was quite sufficient for my tastes.
This book fulfilled the 2025 PopSugar prompt #41 - A book by the oldest author in your TBR pile [I'm interpreting this prompt as oldest living - fairly confident I don't have anyone who beats Ann Thwaite at age 92].
February 17, 2018
Three and a half stars for this plaintive biography of Milne and his career in writing. It seems almost incredible that Alan Milne didn’t think that by naming the boy featured in the stories of Pooh and the poems CR would affect his son, whom the family always called Billy Moon. Milne thought his fame would rest on his plays, which have totally disappeared from the stage, and not his children’s books. I agree with the author that the world of Pooh is the lost paradise of childhood where the characters were kinder and better than those in the real world. It made me want to read the Pooh books again.
March 3, 2025
I typically really enjoy reading about real people and what led them to be the famous person they are, but this one didn’t do it for me. Slow, and actually more depressing than I thought the author of Winnie the Pooh’s story would be. That’s not why it’s a 3-star rating though. Solely for the slow factor.
December 16, 2017
It honestly read like a first draft. Also, I didn’t realize that this was an abridged version of a longer biography on A.A. Milne. I wanted more about Milne’s individual works and less about his daily life. So much of the book was filler. Every other line was a quote from some outside source. Thwaite didn’t contribute many original sentences. If there’s filler in an abridged version of Milne’s biography, imagine the amount of filler that must be in the original. Maybe Milne just wasn’t that interesting as a person, but I was glad when the bookas over.
April 17, 2021
I learned a lot about Milne's personal life from reading this book; for example, I did not know that he was a popular playwright in between the wars, and that he was a regular contributor to the legendary satirical magazine Punch. But I was expecting there to be more discussion of his literary output related to children's books and far less about his dinner parties and cottage renovations. This was written about and by someone who is quite concerned about class distinctions and it permeates the book. So rather, for example, go into the details of Milne's terrific mystery for adults The Red House Mystery, Thwaite would just mention Milne was working on it, and then include the amount of money he negotiated for his publishing contract. Surely there is all sorts of correspondence of and interviews with Milne she could have culled, but instead it was all about Milne's personal life, his strained marriage, and even more awkward relationships with friends. While Christopher Robin does appear in moments, he isn't mentioned often, and again, given the idea of the book is in the very title (to detail the making of Winnie-the-Pooh) I found Thwaite was very short on details and much too long on depicting Milne in as curmudgeonly and recalcitrant a light as possible. I am not saying he was not those things, but surely that is less of a concern to the reader than it is to learn about how the most famous bear in literature got his start.
I just couldn't shake the feeling that Thwaite had an axe to grind with Milne, and that was her focus far more than anything the title suggests.
I just couldn't shake the feeling that Thwaite had an axe to grind with Milne, and that was her focus far more than anything the title suggests.
March 24, 2024
AUDIOBOOK:
I don't have much to offer as a review, other than I found the narrator a little too British and hard to understand sometimes, although those might have happened because a little more than halfway into the book, it became insufferably boring. It also took this long until the publishing of the first Winnie-the-Pooh book.
The Afterward, the accounting of Milne's life, as well as Christopher Robin's in the years following the fame and fortune of a best-selling children's book was much more interesting and I wished there'd been more focus on those years and how Milne's son resented his father for profiting from his name and also destroying his life for many years because of the fame and close association with the book.
I was quite astounded to consider how closely Milne is associated, even today, with a tiny bear and a little boy in the woods, despite his many other publishing successes, or even his vast canon of stage plays. He was a very successful writer, even before Pooh. It was also interesting to note that when 'Winnie-the-Pooh' was first published, it was a bestseller among adults, both in Britain and the US. It would take another year or so before parents started reading it to their children, and I think it's come full circle today, with more adults appreciating the wisdom and child-like imaginings of silly stuffed bear and all of his friends and their adventures in the 'Hundred Acre Wood.'
I don't have much to offer as a review, other than I found the narrator a little too British and hard to understand sometimes, although those might have happened because a little more than halfway into the book, it became insufferably boring. It also took this long until the publishing of the first Winnie-the-Pooh book.
The Afterward, the accounting of Milne's life, as well as Christopher Robin's in the years following the fame and fortune of a best-selling children's book was much more interesting and I wished there'd been more focus on those years and how Milne's son resented his father for profiting from his name and also destroying his life for many years because of the fame and close association with the book.
I was quite astounded to consider how closely Milne is associated, even today, with a tiny bear and a little boy in the woods, despite his many other publishing successes, or even his vast canon of stage plays. He was a very successful writer, even before Pooh. It was also interesting to note that when 'Winnie-the-Pooh' was first published, it was a bestseller among adults, both in Britain and the US. It would take another year or so before parents started reading it to their children, and I think it's come full circle today, with more adults appreciating the wisdom and child-like imaginings of silly stuffed bear and all of his friends and their adventures in the 'Hundred Acre Wood.'
May 4, 2020
It was OK but only barely. Another case of misplaced expectations - this is not a story of Christopher Robin's relationship with his father, but rather a story of A. A. Milne's brief but too triumphant foray into the realm of childhood literature and how he came to loathe his own creation and success. Everything about C.R.'s relationship is neatly summarised in the afterword.
Other than that, the book pays too much attention to the most minute details, dramatically foreshadows the problems in A. A. Milne's life without explaining them completely and devotes too much attention to the chronology while, paradoxically, jumping in the timeline too much.
Overall, I'd be a much happier man if I read only the foreword, intro and the afterword. Other than that it was a slog.
Other than that, the book pays too much attention to the most minute details, dramatically foreshadows the problems in A. A. Milne's life without explaining them completely and devotes too much attention to the chronology while, paradoxically, jumping in the timeline too much.
Overall, I'd be a much happier man if I read only the foreword, intro and the afterword. Other than that it was a slog.
March 8, 2018
I did not find this as captivating as I would have liked. Instead of being the story of a father writing about his beloved son's imaginations with his nursery toys, as I was expecting, it was pretty much about the father and a chronology of his life of writing, and how the Winnie-the-Pooh series made him successful, but dissatisfied in his life's works. It was apparently accurate, but all the more disappointing. I can't say it shouldn't have been written this way, but I definitely felt misled by the title. I wanted/expected a more pleasant read, sorry...
January 3, 2018
Interesting but I felt it stopped at the bit I wanted more detail about. The afterword, which dealt with A A Milne’s relationship with his son as an adult, interested me and I would have liked that to be done in much more detail. Will try to read Christopher Robin’s autobiographies to follow on from this.
February 4, 2018
Very disappointed in this book & did not finish it. It is more about Milne's writing career, people he knew & critics than any resemblance to either his son Christopher Robin or the beloved stories of Winnie the Pooh. It totally lacks any fondness or love the readers have for these booksa.
February 16, 2018
The authors have done an excellent job of taking a beloved author and warping his story into useless minutiae. Avoid at all costs.
October 27, 2025
A thoroughly readable, shortened version of a previously published biography by Ann Thwaite. I learned a great deal about AA Milne, a pacifist who survived WWI and whose writing career began with articles for Punch. Along with being a thoroughly engaging and grounded person and fond father and husband, he became a successful playwright, with productions on both sides of the Atlantic; his foray into children's literature began with illustrated verses and gradually his son Christopher Robin's nursery companions sparked the quirky stories the world has come to love. It was interesting to follow his close relationship and correspondence with his brother Ken, who contracted TB and relied on AA's financial support for the rest of his life. I had heard that there was much resentment later on from Christopher Robin who felt his father's fame and fortune came at his (CR's) expense, but this hardly featured in the book. On pages 56-57 are explanations written in a register pitched at children explaining rhyme and rhythm, and the three sources for poems: 'by remembering, noticing and imagining.' On page 156 we consider 'CR in relation to Pooh and the other animals...he is the child as hero' taking on a caring adult's role, rather than being seen as an insufferably smug little boy.
Two things stood out for me: the age-old problem of fathers' expectations of their sons: CR was a sensitive child and 'only ever featured in the Third XI' of his privileged boarding school. I'd have liked more about CR as an adult (that he married his cousin turned out to be a tragedy - no heirs, no grandchildren for Alan and Daphne).
The second striking impression is the role of the illustrator EH Shephard. I think the author Thwaite could have made more of his extraordinary talent and I was left with the feeling Shephard had been somewhat unsung and underrated. Reading 'Goodbye CR' was a wonderful new opportunity to compare the photos of CR and his toys with the 'decorations' of an artist who had a huge role in immortalising Christopher Robin and Pooh. Overall, I felt a certain sadness at the end of the book.
Two things stood out for me: the age-old problem of fathers' expectations of their sons: CR was a sensitive child and 'only ever featured in the Third XI' of his privileged boarding school. I'd have liked more about CR as an adult (that he married his cousin turned out to be a tragedy - no heirs, no grandchildren for Alan and Daphne).
The second striking impression is the role of the illustrator EH Shephard. I think the author Thwaite could have made more of his extraordinary talent and I was left with the feeling Shephard had been somewhat unsung and underrated. Reading 'Goodbye CR' was a wonderful new opportunity to compare the photos of CR and his toys with the 'decorations' of an artist who had a huge role in immortalising Christopher Robin and Pooh. Overall, I felt a certain sadness at the end of the book.
January 20, 2019
I have always loved Winnie-the-Pooh for his innocence, positive outlook and friendliness. So, I was intrigued to read this book about the author A.A. Milne. I learned many new and interesting facts. I did not know that he was a famous and well off play right in his own lifetime. I did not know he was not particularly interested in children. That writing his most famous children's books happened more by accident than because he had any great desire to write children's books. It was also sad that though these books made him very wealthy and even more famous he in some ways came to resent their existence. I did like that his money continued to help disabled children even after his death.
Even Christopher Robin's life was not all sunshine. His life as depicted in the Pooh books did seem accurate though I found it interesting that Milne was jealous of Christopher's strong attachment to his nanny. But during his teenage years father and son shared a close relationship like never before. Sadly they seemed to drift apart later and Christopher Robin only had one child who was disabled.
So, in many ways I did not like this book. I felt cheated by Milne that he was not immensely proud of this gift to the world. Pooh is a wonderful character that has given so much joy to so many. Even Christopher Robin disliked how famous these books made him which is understandable for a young boy. I also felt like the author Ann Thwaite was desperate for material for this book and included many pieces of trivial material just to stretch into a book. The story often was boring, which made the it long and slow going.
I am glad I read it and will probably seek out all four of his children's books. I did not realize When We Were Very Young was so popular even out selling the two Pooh books.
Even Christopher Robin's life was not all sunshine. His life as depicted in the Pooh books did seem accurate though I found it interesting that Milne was jealous of Christopher's strong attachment to his nanny. But during his teenage years father and son shared a close relationship like never before. Sadly they seemed to drift apart later and Christopher Robin only had one child who was disabled.
So, in many ways I did not like this book. I felt cheated by Milne that he was not immensely proud of this gift to the world. Pooh is a wonderful character that has given so much joy to so many. Even Christopher Robin disliked how famous these books made him which is understandable for a young boy. I also felt like the author Ann Thwaite was desperate for material for this book and included many pieces of trivial material just to stretch into a book. The story often was boring, which made the it long and slow going.
I am glad I read it and will probably seek out all four of his children's books. I did not realize When We Were Very Young was so popular even out selling the two Pooh books.
March 4, 2023
I really enjoyed this sort of movie tie-in story about A. A. Milne, Billy Moon, and Winnie the Pooh. Ann Thwaite won the Whitbread Award for her biography of A. A. Milne, I think in 1990 or 1991. Not sure. Anyways, here she draws from that knowledge to explore the issues that writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce used to write his screenplay for the film, Goodbye Christopher Robin. I admit that I am a big Winnie the Pooh fan, my children adored those stories and I still do. I cried watching that film and to this day I can't watch it without crying and I am not a cryer. Laughing. It's bizarre. Somehow I think there is something Freudian going on when I watch it and I love the child actor. I could be projecting. Who knows.
A. A. Milne was a very private man who lived in a very small world of family. He was a good writer, a hard worker, and I think a good father for a man of his times and predicament. We are talking upper class British society. Pooh made him one of the wealthiest writers in the world, but he was not a man who valued money the way some do. He supported I don't know how many people, including his son. To be very honest, I am not sure what happened with his son. Maybe Milne was too over protective. And Billy Moon was really spoiled in many ways by atypical upper class parents. I am about to read his side of the story. But right now I can tell you, that I am not sure what happened to the real Christopher Robin aka Billy Moon. He was a lot like his father in my opinion. Both quiet, private people, who had a small circle of friends and really did not look out beyond that. And then there was Winnie the Pooh, something that they shared privately that became an entity of its own outside them.
UPDATE:
I believe that Billy Moon loved his father very much, but it was hard loving a man who was a famous author. I think people have exaggerated some of the facts of the story around Billy Moon for commercial purposes. It was difficult for C.R. Milne to find his own identity, but he did. We have to respect his choices. More on this when I write a review of the full biography of A A Milne and The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne.
A. A. Milne was a very private man who lived in a very small world of family. He was a good writer, a hard worker, and I think a good father for a man of his times and predicament. We are talking upper class British society. Pooh made him one of the wealthiest writers in the world, but he was not a man who valued money the way some do. He supported I don't know how many people, including his son. To be very honest, I am not sure what happened with his son. Maybe Milne was too over protective. And Billy Moon was really spoiled in many ways by atypical upper class parents. I am about to read his side of the story. But right now I can tell you, that I am not sure what happened to the real Christopher Robin aka Billy Moon. He was a lot like his father in my opinion. Both quiet, private people, who had a small circle of friends and really did not look out beyond that. And then there was Winnie the Pooh, something that they shared privately that became an entity of its own outside them.
UPDATE:
I believe that Billy Moon loved his father very much, but it was hard loving a man who was a famous author. I think people have exaggerated some of the facts of the story around Billy Moon for commercial purposes. It was difficult for C.R. Milne to find his own identity, but he did. We have to respect his choices. More on this when I write a review of the full biography of A A Milne and The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne.
October 19, 2024
Yesterday while enjoying an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen with my husband, I saw a fun fact in the Coffee News. The Coffee News is a single piece of paper printed on both sides with ads, jokes, horoscopes, and fun facts.
The fun fact that caught my eye was that the author, A.A. Milne, had a son named Christopher Robin who had a teddy bear that he had named Winnie. Milne wrote Winnie-the-Pooh books that featured Christopher Robin and many other characters.
While looking for an audiobook on Libby, I found Goodbye Christopher Robin: A. A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh and was excited to listen to it. The author, Ann Thwaite, had already written a biography about A. A. Milne.
I was disappointed because I guess I expected to be transported back in time to characters and stories that I loved so much. Instead, it felt more like a history text, and it stated that A.A. Milne
required or wanted "violent praise." It seemed that Milne was concerned he wasn't viewed as a literary leader with Pooh's success. He wanted to be known for more intellectual, scholarly works.
One interesting fact was that after Christopher Robin was born, his family called him Billy.
This ended up being a DNF for me.
The fun fact that caught my eye was that the author, A.A. Milne, had a son named Christopher Robin who had a teddy bear that he had named Winnie. Milne wrote Winnie-the-Pooh books that featured Christopher Robin and many other characters.
While looking for an audiobook on Libby, I found Goodbye Christopher Robin: A. A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh and was excited to listen to it. The author, Ann Thwaite, had already written a biography about A. A. Milne.
I was disappointed because I guess I expected to be transported back in time to characters and stories that I loved so much. Instead, it felt more like a history text, and it stated that A.A. Milne
required or wanted "violent praise." It seemed that Milne was concerned he wasn't viewed as a literary leader with Pooh's success. He wanted to be known for more intellectual, scholarly works.
One interesting fact was that after Christopher Robin was born, his family called him Billy.
This ended up being a DNF for me.
January 4, 2020
3 1/2 stars really. I liked this book, but not as much as I thought I would, considering how much I liked the movie. I suppose my mistake was in reading the book after seeing the movie. It rather sets up the expectation that the book will be much better than the movie. And while I liked the book for all the historical information and background of A. A. Milne, and Christopher Milne, a. k. a. Billy Moon, it was missing some of the sweet nostalgia of the movie (although there are a few sweet moments). However, it also rather matter-of-factly explained the natural resentment of the real Christopher to the price he had to pay for fame later in life, while also reminding us that it wasn't so terrible for him when he was a child.
The one enjoyment that I didn't expect was a reminder of the other things that Milne has written, poetry, and plays, and other books, even a mystery, and I look forward to reading them! Ok, two things actually. I also enjoyed reading about Milne's working relationship with E. H. Shepard, his illustrator, and how he would come to draw the toys in the forest. It sounds like the books came about as a natural part of their life. Which sounds just about right.
The one enjoyment that I didn't expect was a reminder of the other things that Milne has written, poetry, and plays, and other books, even a mystery, and I look forward to reading them! Ok, two things actually. I also enjoyed reading about Milne's working relationship with E. H. Shepard, his illustrator, and how he would come to draw the toys in the forest. It sounds like the books came about as a natural part of their life. Which sounds just about right.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2024
Reading 2024
Book 239: Goodbye Christopher Robin: A. A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh by Ann Thwaite
Another book I found during #nonfictionnovember to go along with the theme this month. Listened to this book on audio. Love Winnie the Pooh, thought this book would be right up my alley.
Synopsis: Goodbye Christopher Robin is a story of celebrity, a story of both the joys and pains of success and, ultimately, the story of how one man created a series of enchanting tales that brought hope and comfort to an England ravaged by the First World War.
Review: Goodbye was not the book I hoped for, while there was some interesting tidbits sprinkled it for me to snack on, most of the book was devoid of interest for me. The background was full of details that I did not feel were needed and I found my attention wandering. What I did glean from the book was cool, some good background facts. My rating 3⭐️.
Book 239: Goodbye Christopher Robin: A. A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh by Ann Thwaite
Another book I found during #nonfictionnovember to go along with the theme this month. Listened to this book on audio. Love Winnie the Pooh, thought this book would be right up my alley.
Synopsis: Goodbye Christopher Robin is a story of celebrity, a story of both the joys and pains of success and, ultimately, the story of how one man created a series of enchanting tales that brought hope and comfort to an England ravaged by the First World War.
Review: Goodbye was not the book I hoped for, while there was some interesting tidbits sprinkled it for me to snack on, most of the book was devoid of interest for me. The background was full of details that I did not feel were needed and I found my attention wandering. What I did glean from the book was cool, some good background facts. My rating 3⭐️.
May 13, 2018
Growing up I personally never had bedtime stories besides a month in my life where my father had tried a poor attempt at a children's Bible. Although everyone else had Winnie-the-Pooh stories read to them, I missed out completely. I picked up this book because of the movie - I wanted to see it because of Gleeson and Robbie, but I missed the chance to do so in theater. I decided to give this book a chance and didn't know what to expect.
It's well written and gives us some insight behind the Milne's - specifically A. A. Milne. This is a shortened book of Thwaite's proper biography book on Milne, but I still enjoyed it. It tells us about life before and after Winnie-the-Pooh, and how it affected the family. Although I started off preparing for the movie, I am glad I read this first. It definitely opened me up to a new world.
It's well written and gives us some insight behind the Milne's - specifically A. A. Milne. This is a shortened book of Thwaite's proper biography book on Milne, but I still enjoyed it. It tells us about life before and after Winnie-the-Pooh, and how it affected the family. Although I started off preparing for the movie, I am glad I read this first. It definitely opened me up to a new world.
March 2, 2019
The popularity of Winnie the Pooh and the children’s books When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six, affected the real life son of Alan Milne, but not until he was sent away to that crucible of bullying called the English Boarding School. The abuse that Christopher Robin Milne experienced at school seems to have destroyed the good relationship he had experienced with his father, but the specifics are not given explicitly. Thwaite refers to statements made by CR Milne briefly but the son remains a shadow in this book and leaves us wishing to hear from him directly. Perhaps the son did not leave letters, diaries, interviews etc to consult.
An interesting read about the life and times of Alan Milne. I am sure he never intended to harm his son and had no idea what the dangers of fame and notoriety could bring.
An interesting read about the life and times of Alan Milne. I am sure he never intended to harm his son and had no idea what the dangers of fame and notoriety could bring.
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