It grieves me to say that the most often quoted lines from A A Milne, the ones you will find plastered all over the internet, that clearly warm the hearts of millions of Winnie-the-Pooh fans out there – these lines are not by A A Milne at all. It’s because we know these books so well – and their enchanting Ernest Sheppard illustrations – that when something isn’t right in Winnie-the-Pooh world, it jars. And no greeting in a card can ever compete with Owl’s way of writing Happy Birthday.

‘GON OUT BACKSON BISY BACKSON’ he might leave as a message for me. ‘Astute and Helpful Bear,’ I might call my husband. My generation seems to have been the last for whom these rhythms and phrases are part of our DNA. Analyse an A A Milne sentence and you’ll find a rhythmic build up of words that manages to convey meaning, warmth, character, emotion and a delightfully absurd humour that deflates pomposity in language in the kindest way. The most wonderful books for children ever written, not just because of their cute cuddly characters but because of their glorious, inimitable, uniquely subtle literary style. …when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.” You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. “If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember.

… and this is what he wrote: HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.

“Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?”.

Right, people, a quiz question to get those sluggish winter brains going: which of these quotations is the odd one out?

Quote tao of pooh