Here’s the real-life Christopher Robin, photographed standing in the hollow of an ancient walnut tree in the garden of his family’s country home at Cotchford Farm in the Ashdown Forest. Look closely, and you can see three of the toys that inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Pooh lies at the child’s feet, Roo is half-hiding behind. Piglet is nestled in the young boy’s hands, gently held as if it were a real little animal. It was his father, Alan (AA) Milne who brought Christopher Robin’s animals to life for the public, and made his son famous, in the books (illustrated by Punch cartoonist EH Shepard) Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). The toys which inspired Pooh and Piglet are now on display at the New York Public Library, along with Tigger, Eeyore and Kanga; Roo was lost (legend has it in an apple orchard in the early 30s). For more details of The Big One Hundred, celebrating the centenary of the publication of Winnie-The-Pooh, see ROSA Magazine Summer 2026.