Book Description
Word count: 4880. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
PIM. I have really nothing to tell, Miss Marden. I have a letter of introduction to your uncle, who in turn will give me, I hope, a letter to a certain distinguished man whom it is necessary for me to meet. That is all. (Holding out his hand.) And now, Miss Marden, I really think I'd better be going. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
My partciular memory is of a quail-pie. Quails may be all right for Moses in the desert, but, if they are served in the form of pie at dinner, they should be distributed at a side-table, not handed round from guest to guest. The Countess having shuddered at it and resumed her biscuit, it was left to me to make the opening excavation. The difficulty was to know where each quail began and ended; the job really wanted a professional quail-finder, who might have indicated the point on the surface of the crust at which it would be most hopeful to dig for quails. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
The only event of importance last week was my victory over Henry by ten and eight. If you don't want to hear about that, then I shall have to pass on to you a few facts about his motor bicycle. You'd rather have the other? I thought so. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
BELINDA (speaking in a deep, mysterious voice). Gentlemen, ye put wild thoughts into my head. In sooth, I am minded to send ye forth upon a quest that is passing strange. Know ye that there is a maid journeyed hither, hight Robinson--whose--(in her natural voice) what's the old for aunt? ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
"

From the beloved creator of Winnie-the-Pooh comes an irresistiblecollection of short stories guaranteed to delight readers of allages.

Book Description
Christopher Milne was the world-famous son of A. A. Milne. This collection brings together passages from the four volumes of C. R. Milne's memoirs. Covering his much-publicized childhood, his war experiences, marriage, and proprietorship of a bookshop, this book presents an intriguing portrait of a gifted man. He chose to live simply--a choice that ultimately brought a happiness that could never come from the empty fame of being the real Christopher Robin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

very dry
This was a tough book to read. My father, aunt, and I are all avis readers and fans of Milne and all things Pooh. But this book was very dry and agonizingly slow. Interesting in bits and pieces, but none of us could finish the book. In my family that is a rarity for any book. It is really about the life of the son of the original author of the Pooh books. You do get a usual sense of the frustration of those who have famous parents here. The bset thing about the book was the 6 picutres in the book. THey feature the original pooh toys, the real pooh sticks bridge, and the real hollow tree in England that A.A. Milne used in his stories. I was really looking forward to more.

Why not combine all three volumes without editing?
I'm going to give this one four stars sight-unseen. I have all three of the original volumes, and think they would be splendid combined into a single volume. One could wish the parts left out would be more from the last two volumes, as admittedly more people would be interested in the background of the Pooh Books as such than in Christopher Milne's own life. Since I know this likely is not the case, I will give this volume four stars. Had all three of the original volumes been combined without editing, I would have given it five stars.

You see, not everyone is concerned merely with either the Pooh Books or the boy who inspired the character Christopher Robin. I should know. Christopher Robin was not merely a character I enjoyed; he was my childhood alter ego, to a degree many of my readers may find hard to imagine. And yet, I knew there was a real boy behind the story, that he and I were much alike on many fundamental levels, and that I would be much interested in learning more about him. When I bought Christopher Milne's original volumes, I was happily flabbergasted to see how dead-on my intuition about him had been. Both as children and as adults, we indeed had much in common, and quite likely would have been good friends had we grown up in the same time and place.

I am far from being the pantheistic humanist that Christopher Milne became, or that A.A. Milne was before him. He says, candidly, that he never met the Christian God he heard about in church. But had I not become a Christian, I too would have become a pantheistic humanist, and for very similar reasons. I can sympathize with his viewpoint, even if I believe I can refute it. All in all, I found the original trilogy enjoyable and even challenging reading, and I'm sure I'd find the "condensed version" so as well. (Now if only someone could show me Lesley Milne's introduction to this volume...)

Tedious and abrupt
I thought I'd enjoy this one, but I ended up regretting that I'd bought this edition of all three of Christopher Milne's memoirs, and not just the first book on its own. Obviously it would have been impossible to fit allthree books into one volume, so the original books have been drasticallyabridged. But this has resulted in a rushed precis of Milne's life, ratherthan an enjoyable autobiography.

The first book was interesting; so muchso that I was quite annoyed that so much of it had been edited out.Obviously, the first book, in which Milne tells us what it was like to bethe real Christopher Robin, was always going to be the most appealing;everyone wants to know about where Pooh really came from and what he andC.R. really got up to in the Hundred Acre Wood.

But as "Beyond the worldof Pooh" progressed it got more and more aimless and uninteresting. OnceMilne has told us (in barely more than a few paragraphs in this edition) ofhis wartime exploits, and then how he went on to open his bookshop, there'snot much more to tell. He appears to promise to tell us about hisrelationship with his handicapped daughter, but never delivers; a missedopportunity to bring some life into the story. Nothing much happens, andthe book stagnates.

Of course, it was Milne's right, after a lifetime ofbeing branded with the "Christopher Robin is saying his prayers" image ofhim created by the media, to retire to a quiet and uneventful life.

Butdid he have to write a book about it? ... Read more

Book Description
Move over, Freud, there's a new psychologist in the forest, and his name is Winnie-the-Pooh. In this witty book, Williams cleverly explores the psychological depths of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood: Piglet is compulsively shy, Eeyore is clinically depressed, and so on. In his unobtrusive way, Pooh is at the center of the puzzle, teaching each of his friends a little smackerel about themselves and leading them on the road to recovery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A little disappointing, depending on what you're looking for
I bought this book because I read a lot of books on psychology AND I was introduced to looking at diverse themes through the "Pooh" world view when a frind suggested "The Tao of Pooh," by Benjamin Hoff. I got this book thinking it might be entertaining and illustrative as well.

It is entertaining for the first while, but generally not very illustrative. As the previous reviewer said, the more you know about shools of psychological theory the more you will enjoy the book. But if you are looking to either learn something about psychological theory OR looking for images and anologies that illustrate concepts in a striking or perceptive way, this is not the best book.

It is entertaining, but it can get old if you are not careful. The tone is very tongue-in-cheek, I had some good chuckles. The kick of the book is looking at the world of the Hundred Acre Wood through such over-the-top scholarly eyes. There is an "inside tone" to his dialog with the reader: sort of a "uninformed and unstudied individuals fail to appreciate this, but you and I can clearly see..." attitude runs through the entire book. I enjoyed that in the first few chapters, but after a while the joke got old. To be fair, I did read this in just a couple long sessions in just a couple days. It may be enjoyed more as a nightstand book where you read a chapter or two every few days.

In terms of learning anything new from the book, one is not likely to get more than a few nuggets of information about one theorist or another. The book is orgainized more by character and story than by psychological concept, so one never really gets to see a school of thought fleshed out in a way that enhances your understanding of it. But, if that's not why you're reading the book, you won't experience it as a short-coming.

It is a fun book, especially if you LOVE Pooh or psychology. If you love and know a lot about both this could be a good, light read to nibble on before bed or over lunch.

Satirical Ursinological Scholarship!
The more you know about psychological theories and Winnie-the-Pooh, the more you will enjoy this book.Dr. Williams blasts away with tongue-in-cheek satire aimed at the psychologist's belief that everything that is said, thought, dreamed, and done has many layers of significance.Unfortunately, that approach means that your enjoyment will be modest if your knowledge is correspondingly limited in either area.If you know little about psychology and have not read Winnie-the-Pooh, you may not get most of the humor in the book.

In Freud-like fashion, Dr. Williams begins by descrbing the case for Winnie-the-Pooh being a super psychologist.The thrust of this argument is that Winnie employs every method ever recommended by any psychologist or psychoanalyst somewhere in his fictional adventures.In fact, he often combines them in a single fictional encounter.

The book then recounts seven cases and Winnie's role in them.

Case 1 -- Pooh Cures Christopher Robin of Arktophobia (fear of bears)

Case 2 -- Pooh Assists Piglet to Mature

Case 3 -- Pooh at His Most Eclectic with Tigger

Case 4 -- The Problem with Rabbit

Case 5 -- Parenting:Kanga and Roo

Case 6 -- Wol's Problems with Communication

Case 7 -- Eeyore:A Case of Classical Depression

The cases are written up like Freud's with the exception that they are illustrated with many drawings from the original Pooh stories.

As an example of the approach, the book Winnie-the-Pooh opens with a reference to his living under the name of Sanders.That is never mentioned again.Dr. Williams provides a lengthy argument in favor of this meaning that Winnie-the-Pooh is describing himself as the Sand man, the bringer of dreams.This is an indication of his role as psychotherapist.

In the famous story where Winnie eats too much honey and cannot get out of the hole in the tree, Dr. Williams reinterprets this as Winnie-the-Pooh making an example of himself to discourage others from overeating rather than using aversion therapy on them.

To put this prescience into context, Dr. Williams points out that the Pooh stories date in the 1920s.In the text, he finds "frequent anticipation of theories and practices which more plodding psychologists arrived at much later."

I don't know about you, but I didn't think much about Jung when I read Winnie-the-Pooh.Obviously, the references were too subtle for me.

Those who have experienced psychotherapy will probably find humor in the observations made about Winnie-the-Pooh that they may have heard applied to themselves.Could the observations be equally apt?

This book is best enjoyed by a roaring fire on a cold night with a warmed snifter of brandy, and savored slowly.

After you have finished the book, you might consider the many instances where novels do show ways to solve psychological problems through their fictional developments.Could it be that we can use fiction to be our own therapist?Or, is someone else the therapist?If someone gave you the book, perhaps they are the therapist.If so, is the author the propounder of the theory . . . or is the character?

See the possibilities for humor in pomposity everywhere!

... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Enchanted book....
....about enchanted places and enchanted childhood favorites.

Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and all their friends have been family friends of us for a long time, and it was a treat to find this book about Christopher Robin, and be able to read about what it was like to be him. Did he really have a bear named Winniw the Pooh, did the Hundred Acre Wood excist, did he and Pooh play on Poohstick Bridge? What a fantastic childhood he must have had?

Of course the imagination in my mind was not all correct, at least not the fantastic childhood part. In this book Christopher Milne tells us from his heart how it was to be the son of A.A.Milne, the creator of all our childhood friends. The book is written with alot of charm, but we can also read between the lines about the negative effects of being a "famous" child, a boy with a childhood who belonged to, and still belong to the whole world.

If you know Winnie the Pooh, and who doesn't, this book is a little diamond, a book full of great details, a book which gives a unique view of the Christopher Robin myth.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Reading this book was a rare privilege for me...
...as was reading the rest of the trilogy when it was in print. (I got the whole trilogy through a friend in England, but I'd never heard that Mr. Milne had written a fourth volume.) I'm glad to see that excerpts of allhis memoirs are available in one volume, BEYOND THE WORLD OF POOH, becauseMr. Milne was indeed a gifted and sensitive man.

I have a specialinterest in this book because Christopher Robin, of all the characters, wasmy favorite -- indeed, my alter ego. I knew from an early age that therewas a real boy behind the fictional character, and I sensed the three of uswere a lot alike. It was a delight to find out just how right my intuitionwas.

In which Billy Moon comes to terms with Christopher Robin
Despite tales of Christopher Milne's bitterness over being forced into the spotlight by his father's tales of Pooh, this comming-to-terms-with-it-all autobiography is filled with wonderful memories of Christopher's childhood and his relationship with his father, his nanny and his mother. He addresses with much warmth and humor the question "What was it like to be Christopher Robin," and, as it goes into much detail about the real enchanted places in Ashdown Forest in England, it's a must read for anyone making an "expotition" to the real-life haunts of Pooh and friends

"Christopher Robin" tells his side of the story
A great autobiography of the man who, as a young boy, inspired his father to write the Pooh books. The magic and tragedy of childhood is presented in one of the most authentic books to show the world through a child's eyes. Christopher Milne's long quest to rid himself of the shadow of Christopher Robin is also presented beautifully.

"Christopher Robin" tells his side of the story
A great autobiography of the man who, as a young boy, inspired his father to write the Pooh books. The magic and tragedy of childhood is presented in one of the most authentic books to show the world through a child's eyes. Christopher Milne's long quest to rid himself of the shadow of Christopher Robin is also presented beautifully. ... Read more

Book Description
It is a universal truth that Winnie-the-Pooh is among the most important beings of the twentieth century. His influence on Western philosophy and on Eastern thought has been well documented. In this witty, scholarly book, John Tyerman Williams sees the dawning of the new millennium as a moment for a major revelation: At the heart of the Ancient Mysteries sits Winnie-the-Pooh.In astrology, alchemy, the interpretation of the tarot—even Arthurian legend—the scope of Pooh's influence far exceeds what even his most ardent admirers have heretofore believed. The arguments are amusing and irrefutable. This entertaining volume makes it clear that the World of Pooh is spiritually and mentally infinite, equal in stature to the great mythical worlds. It is a Very Comforting Thought to have as we meander through the Hundred Acre Wood, right into the twenty-first century. ... Read more