ON THE LATE SIDE

Today is A A Milne's birthday.

The author of all those verses and stories about Christopher Robin and his bear of Very Little Brain, Winnie-the-Pooh, was born 132 years ago in Hampstead, London, on 18 January, 1882.

Pooh's good friend, Eeyore, gloomily (but accurately) observed...

"After all, what are birthdays? Here today and gone tomorrow." 

...so to brighten him and everyone else up, I thought I'd mention that my book, Three Cheers for Pooh, is being republished later this year to mark the 90th anniversary of the first publication of When We Were Very Young, in the pages of which Winnie-the-Pooh (then known, formally, as 'Mr Edward Bear' or sometimes simply as 'Teddy Bear') made his bow. Here are the proofs of the cover...

And, for anyone who'd like to know a little more about the man who gave us Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kager, Roo, Owl, Rabbit and all his friends (and relations!) sit down with a nice cup of tea and a smackerel of something and enjoy this programme, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006, and starring Alec McCowen and Jasper Britton. It was entitled (after Milne's autobiography) It's Too Late Now...

HUM–ALONG–A-POOH

Do you remember this..

The year: 1977... A record made by a small green frog reaches No.7 in the UK Top Ten and earns him an appearance on the BBC's weekly TV show, Top of the Pops.

The frog was Robin, nephew of Kermit, Master of Ceremonies of The Muppet Show and the lyrics – by A A Milne (left) author, playwright and essayist and Assistant Editor of the humorous magazine Punch – had originally been published in 1924 in Milne's celebrated collection of children's verses, with illustrations by E H Shepard, When We Were Very Young.

The wistful melody was the work of Harold Fraser-Simson (right), a close neighbour of Milne's in Chelsea and a fellow member of the Garrick Club.

He had also earned a reputation as a successful composer of light music with his score for the phenomenal West End triumph, The Maid of the Mountains, an operetta that played for 1,352 performances: a record run second only, at the time, to that of Chu Chin Chow.

The partnership between Fraser-Simson and Milne began with a volume of Fourteen Songs from 'When We Were Very Young', which instantly capitalised on the huge success achieved by the book of verses, many of which were 'fictionally' based on the juvenile doings of Milne's son, Christopher Robin: going to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace ('with Alice') or being careful not to treads on the lines of the street – especially whenever he went 'Hoppity-hoppity-hoppity-hoppity-hop'!

One of the most famous songs to come out of this collaboration was Milne's first 'children's verse', published two years before When We Were Very Young in 1923, in the American magazine, Vanity Fair. It's formal title was 'Vespers' but most people know it as...

Some may think it is a tad too sentimental (and they'd probably be right!) but, in it's defence, I would point out that the writer later said that if you read the words carefully you'll see that it is, in fact, about a little boy NOT saying his prayers!

Many recordings of the song have been made over the years, from 'Belfast's Own Boy Soprano', Billy Neely...

...via Gracie Fields and Webster Booth to the New York Met's great Wagnerian soprano, Helen Traubel...

In addition to the verses in When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, Fraser-Simson provided musical settings for the Hums of Pooh, the ditties extemporised by Christopher Robin's 'bear of very little brain' in the books, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.

Anyway, what all this is leading up to is that there is a 30-minute feature tomorrow (Tuesday) morning on BBC Radio 4 at 11:30 am about the MIlne/Fraser-Simson partnership.  

The Songs of Milne is presented by pianist John Kember (below right with baritone Richard Burkhard), who first came across the music on a friend's piano and set about collecting the scores for all of Fraser-Simson's sixty-seven settings of Milne's verses and Pooh's Hums. It is John's ambition that he and Richard might produce a complete recording of these delightful songs.

In the programme, John tells the story of this, now largely forgotten, partnership and explores the relationship between the words and the music, their rise and decline in popularity and ponders the question of whether they have any currency in today's world that is so very different to that of the 1920s era of nannies, nursery teas and prayers at bedtime...

Also taking part in the broadcast are Andrew Lamb, authority on musical theatre, Dr Clare Rose, Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth –– and the author of Three Cheers for Pooh, viz... Me! 

Following the broadcast, the programme can be heard via the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days.

I began by mentioning the Muppets and I think the late Jim Henson must have had an affection for these songs because, over the years, a number of them were featured on The Muppet Show. I'll leave you with Rowlf's rendition of one of Pooh's best hums, 'Cottleston Pie'...

HAPPY POOHSDAY!

Sometime (no one seems to know when), someone (no one seems to know who) decreed that today should be annually marked and celebrated as Winnie-the-Pooh Day.


The date is actually the birthday of A[lan] A[lexander] Milne, (born 129 years ago), creator of the the Bear of Very Little Brain and his friends in the 100 Aker Wood.

Personally, I'd have chosen 14 October and for two reasons: firstly, because that was the original publication date of the book, Winnie-the-Pooh; and, secondly, because poor Mr Milne suffered enough from having his reputation as a playwright and essayist overshadowed by Pooh without muddling up his birthday with that of a much-loved, but fictional, character.

However - to use the ironic title of Milne's autobiography - "It's Too Late Now..."

So, in compensation I would like to draw your attention to the splendid recordings of the complete Pooh stories (Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner) along with the Christopher Robin verses from When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, read – well, performed, really – by my late (very good and dear friend) the actor, Peter Dennis.

There have been many readings of these books: some will be familiar with those by Stephen Fry or Alan Bennett; older readers will recall Willie Rushton, Bernard Cribbins and Lionel Jeffries; Americans will remember having records narrated by Maurice Evans and Carol Channing and those who fall into the 'Now We Are Sixty' category may even have a trace memory of BBC Radio's original voice of Pooh, Norman Shelley.

Peter Dennis, however, is in a class of his own and listening to him is to meet the inhabitants of Christopher Robin's nursery (and A A Milne's imagination) anew as he becomes, by turn, slow but dependable Pooh, nervous Piglet, gloomy Eeyore, enthusiastic Tigger, bossy Rabbit, pompous Owl, motherly Kanga and excitable Roo.

Peter developed a close friendship with the grown-up Christopher Milne, who wrote two superbly-crafted volumes of autobiography – The Enchanted Places and The Path Through the Trees – recalling his life with his father and the Best Bear in All the World and his experiences beyond the world of Pooh...

During the last year of Peter's life, he recorded these two books as a promised gift for Christopher’s daughter, Clare, and the first volume of this exceptional rendition is now available.

I remember, on first reading The Enchanted Places, I rather rashly told Christopher Milne that the book showed him to be his father's son.

He was terribly polite, but I guess his heart must have sunk rather, since his life was (in some senses) almost as badly blighted by the popularity of Pooh as his father's had been.

I had meant it, however, as a compliment since I rated (and still rate) A A Milne as one of the 20th Century's truly great, albeit largely forgotten, humorous writers: a master of elegant, effortless prose and verse and because the ability to turn a good phrase was a gift inherited by his son.

Christopher's reminiscences, a joy to read, are now also a joy to listen to in Peter's delightful recordings that not only capture Milne-the-Younger's sometimes wry, sometimes poignant, always charmingly self-effacing way with words but are also a testament to the affection that existed between author and actor.

"If you want to meet the real Pooh," Christopher Milne once wrote, "the bear I knew, the bear my father wrote about, listen to Peter..." I would add, if you want to meet Christopher, the boy and the man and the friend of bears – listen to Peter!


Finally, just to add to the jollity of nations, here's me, wittering about Pooh as Chris Evans' 'Mystery Guest' on BBC Radio 2, yesterday morning...

HAPPY POOHSDAY!