Winnie the Pooh turns 90!

It's hard to believe that Winnie the Pooh is an old bear. He, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Tigger and the rest of the gang scarcely seem a day older than when they first came to life 90 years ago in a charming collection of books by A.A. Milne. But in fact, the books that made them all famous celebrate their 90th anniversary this year. Rewind pays tribute to the loveable old bear with stories about the real-life Christopher Robin, including how he came to resent Pooh, why the books continue to hold appeal and Winnie's real life Canadian connection. 

Winnie the Pooh's story began in Canada during the First World War. Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian with the Fort Garry Horse Manitoba Regiment, cared for the horses that travelled by train with the troops across Canada on their way to war. During a whistle stop in White River, Ontario, Lt. Colebourn fell in love with a bear cub brought to the train by a hunter. He bought him for $20, named him after his hometown of Winnipeg and took him on board, where Winnie became the mascot of the regiment. Winnie travelled with the troop by train all the way across the country and then by ship overseas to England. But after training, when Colebourn was deployed close to the front lines, Winnie found a home in the London Zoo. Winnie was a favourite attractions at the zoo, so gentle that he allowed children to ride on his back. A.A. Milne and his son Christopher were two of many visitors charmed by Winnie's gentle, friendly nature. Winnie inspired him to write a series of stories on the bear and his friends, based on his son's stuffed animals. Canadian writer Lindsay Mattick thinks of Winnie as family; Harry Colebourn was her great grandfather. Mattick's book Finding Winnie: the True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear tells the story. Last November, she talked to Anna Maria Tremonti to tell the true tale of an unlikely First World War legacy.

Ann Thwaite wrote a serious biography about A.A. Milne. But she also had fun with The Brilliant Career of Winnie the Pooh. In another fabulous Canadian connection, she started her research at the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books in Toronto, one of the world's most extensive collections of children's literature. In 1992, she talked to Peter Gzowski about Christopher Robin Milne.

The Disney version of Pooh looks quite different from the Pooh created by E.H. Shepard, who drew the original illustrations for the book. Milne loved them so much that in the first American edition, he inscribed: "When I'm gone, let Shepard decorate my tomb." (Milne ended up being cremated without a marker.) Now, in 2016, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Winnie the Pooh books, a new character called Penguin has been introduced to the series. Penguin appears in the story Winter: In Which Penguin Arrives in the Forest, one of a new collection of stories called The Best Bear in All the World.