Christopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne | |
---|---|
Boxgrove Preparatory School Stowe School | |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1920-1975 |
Known for | Giving his name to Christopher Robin in Winnie-the-Pooh |
Spouse |
Lesley de Sélincourt
(m. 1948) |
Children | Clare Milne (1956–2012) |
Parent(s) | A. A. Milne Daphne de Sélincourt |
Relatives | Aubrey de Sélincourt (uncle) |
Christopher Robin Milne (21 August 1920 – 20 April 1996) was an English author and bookseller and the only child of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.
Early life
Christopher Robin Milne was born at 11
Milne's father explained that "Rosemary" was the intended name of their firstborn child, if it was a girl. Realizing that it was going to be a boy, he decided on "Billy", but without the intention of actually christening him William. Instead, each parent chose a name; hence his legal name was Christopher Robin. Within the family, he was referred to as "Billy Moon", a combination of his nickname and his childhood mispronunciation of Milne.[2] From 1929 onwards, he would simply be referred to as Christopher, and he later stated that it was "the only name I feel to be really mine."[3][4]
On his first birthday on 21 August 1921, Milne received an Alpha Farnell teddy bear, which he later named Edward. Eeyore was a Christmas present in 1921 and Piglet arrived undated. Edward, along with a real Canadian black bear named Winnipeg that Milne saw at London Zoo,[6][7] eventually became the inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh character.
Milne spoke self-deprecatingly of his own intellect, "I may have been on the dim side", or "not very bright". He also described himself as being "good with his hands", and possessing a Meccano set. His self-descriptions included "girlish", since he had long hair and wore "girlish clothes", and being "very shy and 'un-self-possessed'".[8]
An early childhood friend was Anne Darlington, also an only child, who, as Milne described it, was for his parents "the Rosemary that I wasn't." Anne Darlington had a toy monkey, Jumbo, as dear to her as Pooh was to Christopher. Several poems by Milne, and several illustrations by E. H. Shepard, feature Anne and Christopher, notably "Buttercup Days", in which their relative hair colours (brown and golden blond) and their mutual affection is noted (the illustration to this latter poem, from Now We Are Six, also features the cottage at Cotchford Farm). To Alan and Daphne Milne, Anne was and remained to her death the Rosemary that Christopher wasn't, and Daphne long held fond hopes that Anne and Christopher would marry.[9]
In 1925, Milne's father bought
Of this time, Milne states, "I loved my Nanny, I loved Cotchford. I also quite liked being Christopher Robin and being famous."[12]
When his nanny departed when he was nine, Milne's relationship with his father grew. As he put it, "For nearly ten years I had clung to Nanny. For nearly ten more years I was to cling to him, adoring him as I had adored Nanny, so that he too became almost a part of me ..."[citation needed]
When Milne eventually wrote his memoirs, he dedicated them to Olive Rand Brockwell, "Alice to millions, but Nou to me".[13]
Schooling
At age six, Milne and Anne Darlington attended Miss Walters' school. On 15 January 1929, Milne started at Gibbs, a
Milne earned a mathematics scholarship at Stowe School, where he was relentlessly bullied, and wrote: "It seemed to me almost that my father had got to where he was by climbing upon my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and had left me with the empty fame of being his son."[18][19] He went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1939.[20][21]
Adult life
When
At 26, he was a very well-educated ex-army officer from a privileged family. He spent a period in London trying to readjust to "civvy street" by finding gainful employment, but his social status worked against him. He explored several career avenues, each one ending in a fruitless cul-de-sac. This was an unhappy and directionless period, sometimes referred to as his 'Downwards' turn. Of this idle interlude he commented "How hateful it is to have too little to do." But he entered an altogether more personally fulfilling chapter of his life: marriage, and rather strangely, as a successful bookshop owner.[23]
On 11 April 1948, Milne became engaged to Lesley de Sélincourt, a first cousin on his mother's side and daughter of the translator Aubrey de Sélincourt, and they married on 24 July 1948.
In 1951, he and his wife moved to
Milne occasionally visited his father when the elder Milne became ill. After his father died, Milne never returned to Cotchford Farm. His mother eventually sold the farm and moved back to London after disposing of his father's personal possessions. Milne, who did not want any part of his father's
Following her husband's death, Daphne Milne had little further contact with her son, did not see him during the last 15 years of her life and refused to see him on her deathbed.[27]
A few months after his father's death in 1956, Christopher Milne's daughter Clare was born and diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy.
Milne gave the original stuffed animals that inspired the Pooh characters to the books' editor, who in turn donated them to the New York Public Library; Marjorie Taylor recounts in her book Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them how many were disappointed at this, and Milne had to explain that he preferred to concentrate on the things that currently interested him.[28] He disliked the idea of Winnie-the-Pooh being commercialised.[29]
Death
Christopher Robin Milne, who lived with myasthenia gravis for some years, died in his sleep on 20 April 1996 in Totnes, Devon, at a local hospital, aged 75.[30] Following his death, he was described by one newspaper as a "dedicated atheist".[31]
Family
Milne had one child, a daughter named Clare,[30] who had cerebral palsy. In adult life, she led several charitable campaigns for the condition, including the Clare Milne Trust.[32] She died in 2012 at the age of 56 of a heart abnormality.[33]
Portrayal
Milne is portrayed by Will Tilston and Alex Lawther in Goodbye Christopher Robin, a 2017 film which was "inspired by" his relationship with his father.
Bibliography
- —— (1974). The Enchanted Places. Eyre Methuen. ISBN 0413-31710-2.
- —— (1979). The Path Through the Trees. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-17630-6.
- —— (1982). The Hollow on the Hill. Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-51270-3.
- —— (1985). The Windfall. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-58960-9.
- —— (1988). The Open Garden. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-40800-0.
References
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 19, 21, 55, 97, 104.
- ^ "10 Things You Never Knew about Christopher Robin". Pan Macmillan. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Milne 2017, p. 233.
- ^ "Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends". NY Public Library. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
- ^ "History of Winnie the Pooh". Just-Pooh.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
- ^ "Winnie". Historica Minutes: The Historica Foundation of Canada. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 37–41, 96.
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 22–24.
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 42, 55, 58, 65, 77, 127.
- ^ Milne 2017, p. 240.
- ^ Milne 1975, p. 92.
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 122, 137, 141, 159.
- ^ Milne 1975, p. 97.
- ^ "The Real Christopher Robin On Being Immortalized In Literature". HuffPost. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ a b "The Real Christopher Robin was Bullied because of Winnie the Pooh". The Vintage News. 25 January 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ "The True Story Behind Winnie the Pooh and 'Goodbye Christopher Robin'". Time. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ "Obituary: Christopher Milne". The Independent. 23 April 1996. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 23, 49, 90–91, 121.
- ^ Milne 1979, pp. 3–5.
- ^ Milne 1979, pp. 13–21, 104, 116–118.
- ^ ISBN 9781911397649.
- ^ Milne 1975, pp. 167–168.
- ^ Milne 1979, pp. 107, 129–133, 147.
- ^ "Christopher Robin's Dartmouth bookshop to close". 20 September 2011.
- ^ Thwaite 1990, pp. 485, 542.
- ISBN 978-0195077049.
- ^ Heathcote, Graham (31 August 1980). "Christopher Robin turns 60". Kingman Daily Milner. p. 10.
- ^ a b Thwaite, Ann. "Obituary: Christopher Milne". The Independent. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ^ Ferguson, Euan (28 April 1996). "Robin's gone, but swallows linger on". The Observer. p. 14.
The books live on. But in real life, Toad is dead; Alice is dead; Peter Pan and Wendy are long flown; and now, Christopher Robin, a 'sweet and decent' man who overcame a childhood in which he was haunted by Pooh and taunted by peers, has left without saying his prayers – he was a dedicated atheist – aged 75.
- ^ "Supporting disability projects in Devon and Cornwall with grants". The Clare Milne Trust. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ^ Sumner, Stephen. "Beloved children's author's legacy lives on". Sidmouth Herald. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
Sources
- "Christopher Robin revealed". BBC News. 27 November 2001. (describes the discovery in 2001 of images of Christopher Robin Milne captured on a 1929 film of a school pageant held in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex).
- Milne, A.A. (2017). It's Too Late Now. London: Bello. ISBN 978-1509869701.
- Milne, Christopher (1975). The Enchanted Places. E.P. Dutton & Co. ISBN 978-0525292937.
- Milne, Christopher (1979). The Path through the Trees. McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 978-0771060496.
- Rakkav, Johanan. "Who Was Christopher Robin Milne?". Archived from the original on 18 June 2007. Retrieved 12 July 2015. (Biography of C.R. Milne, with photographs of him at various ages throughout his life)
- Thwaite, Ann (1990). A.A. Milne: His Life. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571161685.