But then, of course, neither have you and I, the latter-day readers of these tales. We recall the last of the Pooh stories. At the end, Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh set off together we know not whither. Lest our hearts should break, A. A. Milne adds a postscript. “Wherever they go,” he tells us, “and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanting place on the top of the forest a boy and his bear will always be playing.” ONE book can save you reading several others. Most of Kevin Last’s biography of Christopher Robin Milne is based on Milne’s own autobiographical writings, beginning with The Enchanted Places (1974). From these memoirs, Last quotes extensively, and, where he is not citing them verbatim, they remain his source. The trouble is that, while Christopher Milne grew up, Christopher Robin was never allowed to. Long into his adult life, pestered by devotees of the child that he once was, he struggled to establish his own identity. Some might say that he never quite did so: that he never finally succeeded in “escaping Winnie-the-Pooh”.

Christopher Robin eventually becomes Christopher Milne. He exchanges his tranquil childhood and student days for the grown-up business of soldiering in wartime. After the war, he drifts in and out of various jobs, including selling lampshades for John Lewis — which he is rather good at. Last’s narrative follows in detail the twists and turns of the story as it unfolds in Milne’s memoirs. We learn of his marriage to his cousin Lesley de Sélincourt, and of the birth of their daughter Clare, who suffered from severe cerebral palsy. Milne settles down finally as the proprietor of the Harbour Bookshop, in Dartmouth, which he manages with some success, tolerating as best he can the attentions of “customers” who only want to buttonhole a certain Christopher Robin.

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