Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne audio book

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.” 

Yes Winnie-the-Pooh is a very famous book and in my school library I even have a set of "non Disney" toys similar to the ones below (made from a sewing pattern) but oddly this book was not part of my childhood.  Recently I saw the movie Goodbye Christopher Robin and then I saw this audio version of Winnie.  I have spent a few days thoroughly enjoying this splendid production staring Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer and several other famous UK actors.  The music by John Gould is utterly perfect as is the voice of Piglet performed by Jane Horrocks.

So much happens in this story which is much longer than I realised.  My favourite scenes are in Chapter 9 - In which Piglet is entirely surrounded by Water.  It reminded me of Frog is a hero by Max Velthuijs.  Poor little Piglet is stranded by days and days of unrelenting rain. Piglet decides to send off a message in a bottle :

HELP!
PIGLIT (ME)

and on the other side

IT'S ME PIGLIT, HELP HELP!

Pooh finds the note several days later but being a bear without much brain he cannot read it.  Luckily he takes the note to Christopher Robin.  Pooh does have some brains, however, because he works out an ingenious way to travel using an empty honey jar.  He took ten jars up into the tree when he escaped the flood.  The friends gather together.  They need to save Piglet. Pooh suggests they use an umbrella as a boat because the honey jar is simply not big enough, and they set off to rescue their friend.

"And then this Bear, Pooh Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, F.O.P. (Friend of Piglet's), R.C. (Rabbit's Companion), P.D. (Pole Discoverer), E.C. and T.F. (Eeyore's Comforter and Tail-finder) ... set sail forthwith in a south-westerly direction, revolving gracefully."

Take time to listen to an audio sample here.  I listened the CD set of this audio book but can can buy it from Audible. Here are a few quotes to make you smile.  In our library we also have Finding Winnie the true story of the world's most famous bear.  Winnie-the-Pooh was published in 1926, Christopher Robin was born August 1920, The House at Pooh Corner is the second set of stories about Winnie and it is in this second book you can read about the game of pooh sticks.

“If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” 

“My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”