For almost 90 years, children have delighted in the tales of Winnie the Pooh, the honey-loving, talking bear who lives in the Hundred Acre Wood.
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The story behind “the world’s most famous bear” is outlined in a new children’s book called, Finding Winning, by Lindsay Mattick.
Your favorite childhood storybook fixture is a charlatan; Winnie the Pooh, if that’s even her real name, is actually a female – a female, Canadian bear.
This is indeed a lot to take in at this hour of a Monday, but news has been rapidly circulating this weekend that Winnie The Pooh – despite the dulcet tones, and the choice of attire – is actually a girl. So, not only is she a girl, she’s also got Canadian roots.
The book was written by Lindsay Mattick, the great granddaughter of Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, the man who rescued the bear cub when he was on the way to treat battlefield horses in 1914.
Eventually, for reasons unknown, the vet surrendered the bear to the London Zoo – where a little boy named (you guessed it!) Christopher Robin would come to visit her. The real-life Winnie spent most of her life in the London Zoo after Christopher Robin moved on to adult-like interests.
“Harry truly did intend to bring her home once the war was finished, but history had another plan in mind”, Mattick told Historica Canada.
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Author A.A. Milne with his son Christopher Robin Milne who was immortalised as boy by his father in Winnie the Pooh stories. “I want people who love Winnie the Pooh to understand that the real story behind her is just as attractive and just as unbelievable”.
