"Someone buys these things and sticks them in their house, away from the public, away from scholars, just for their own enjoyment and whatever thrill they can get from knowing that they own a rarity.

Buy the drawings and give them to a library or a museum so that others can enjoy them and study them. The librarian or the curator will probably spring for coffee and doughnuts every time you come in, too."


I don't know how many of the drawings were sold, but the V&A in London already owns an awful lot of them. I don't know if it's still possible to do this, but some years ago I went to the museum and asked where the original Pooh drawings were, because some postcards I'd bought said that the copyright was owned by the V&A. The guard directed me to a room upstairs that wes like a reference library. I filled out a form with my name and why i wanted to see them....and they brought out a box. In it were dozens of the original illustrations, which I was left to go through at my leisure. I was completely gobsmacked by this - I'd expected to go and see some framed pictures in a gallery. Then the lady said that if I wanted to take any photographs, I just had to fill out another form for each one, undertaking not to publish the picture.

This was pre-internet days, so I don't know if they allow such free access to the drawings now. But perhaps it's some comfort to know that many of the drawings are still in public ownership, even if they're not on regular display.


An old friend of mine seved in the same regiment during the war as Christopher Robin Milne. When he spotted "CR Milne" on the trunk next to the bed and his eyes widened, Christopher Robin reportedly said, "Tell anyone and I'll fucking kill you."