Author strives to echo Milne in 'Winnie-the-Pooh' sequel

[almaty 19]

Eeyore the donkey, still gloomy after all these years, is dubious, but he and others in A.A. Milne's children's classic,Winnie-the-Pooh, are in for some new adventures in the first authorized full-length sequel in more than 80 years.

Eeyore the donkey, still gloomy after all these years, is dubious, but he and others in A.A. Milne's children's classic,Winnie-the-Pooh, are in for some new adventures in the first authorized full-length sequel in more than 80 years.

British novelist David Benedictus, 71, who wrote Return to the Hundred Acre Wood (Dutton, $19.99), to be released Oct. 5, says he hopes readers think his 10 stories "could have been written by Milne himself."

Milne, who died in 1956, wrote two books inspired by his son, Christopher Robin (who died in 1996), and his favorite teddy bear: Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928).

Pooh, a "bear with a pleasing manner but a positively startling lack of brain," also is mentioned in poems in When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Six (1927). The four books, illustrated by E.H. Shepard, have sold more than 50 million copies.

The sequel, illustrated by Mark Burgess, appears to be more faithful to the original than the numerous Disney spinoffs in books and films.

Benedictus and his U.S. and British publishers are keeping the plot a secret. He says he didn't update its setting or style: "Its enduring appeal is that it represents a cheerful world, a world that doesn't change, where animals are supportive of one another."

Only his one-page introduction has been released. Jim Dale, who did the audio, as he did for J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, reads the introduction on a video at penguin.com/pooh.

In it, Benedictus imagines talking to Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore, who predicts, "He'll get it wrong, see if he doesn't. What does he know about donkeys?'

"Of course Eeyore is right," Benedictus replies, "because I don't know. I can only guess. But guessing can be fun, too."

Benedictus was inspired by producing and writing a 1997 audio adaptation of Pooh with Judi Dench and Stephen Fry: "All of Milne's rhythms kept buzzing around. The actors' voices were still in my head."

Michael Brown, spokesman for the Trustees of the Pooh Properties, says Benedictus' stories were the first and only of many writers' attempts to be "comparable to the originals."

Benedictus hiked England's Ashdown Forest, the model for the Hundred Acre Wood, "to breath in the Milne air."

He has not seen or read spinoffs from Disney, which bought rights to merchandise Pooh in 1961 but not to publish full-length sequels. Disney says its Pooh books sell 27 million copies a year worldwide.

i am a ####### for the old winnie the pooh books by Milne..hate and puke at Disney treatment and marketing of the classics..look forward to reading the new stories..

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Interesting. Milne should required reading for all parents to their kids.

[almaty 19]

total agreement..