Publications
A. A. Milne: His Life, by Ann Thwaite, published 4 June 1990 (608 pp., Faber & Faber, ISBN-10: 0571138888 & ISBN-13: 9780571138883) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:A study of the life of A.A.Milne, from his childhood, when he was educated at his father's school Henley House and taught by H.G.Wells, through his early days on "Granta" and "Punch", to the flowering of his careeer in the 1920s and 1930s. Milne wrote a series of West End plays, including "Mr Pim Passes By", and numbered among his friends P.G.Wodehouse and J.M.Barrie. It was for his son, born in 1920, that Milne wrote the four great children's books of his maturity: "When We Were Very Young", "Now We are Six", "Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner". Revealing Milne's complexity, this biography tells of his strong political feelings, his often difficult personal relationships, and how his successful children's books became an almost intolerable burden. Ann Thwaite was awarded the 1990 Whitbread Biography of The Year for this book.
A. A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh, by Ann Thwaite, published 22 August 1990 (553 pp., New York: Random House, ISBN-10: 0394587243 & ISBN-13: 9780394587240) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:A.A. Milne is one of the most successful English writers ever. His heart-warming creations - Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet - have become some of the best-loved children's characters of all time, and readers the world over are familiar with the stories from the Hundred Acre Wood. Yet the man himself has remained an enigma. Although in many ways his behaviour was that of a typical golf-playing, pipe-smok-ing Englishman, Milne refused to be typecast, and his publishers despaired when he turned from writing popular columns for Punch to writing detective stories. They complained again when the detective writer presented them with a set of children's verse, but when When We Were Very Young became one of the best-selling books of all time, Milne's credibility as one of the world's favorite authors was sealed.
The Brilliant Career of Winnie-the-Pooh: The story of A. A. Milne and his writing for children, by Ann Thwaite, published 12 October 1992 (192 pp., Methuen, ISBN-10: 0413667103 & ISBN-13: 9780413667106) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:Begins with the birth of Winnie-the-Pooh's creator, A.A. Milne. Novelist and dramatist, he began writing poetry for children purely as a diversion. E.H. Shepherd illustrated a collection of his verse, "When We Were Very Young" in 1924, which marked the beginning of an exceptional association.
A. A. Milne: His Life, by Ann Thwaite, published 2014 (originally published by Faber in 1990, xvi + 678 pp., London: Bello, ISBN-13: 9781447272038) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:A.A. Milne is one of the most successful English writers ever. His heart-warming creations have become some of the best-loved children's characters of all time, and readers the world over are familiar with the stories from the Hundred Acre Wood. In this biography, Ann Thwaite reveals the man behind Pooh in all his complexity.