‘Return to the Hundred Acre Wood’: In Which Pooh Reappears in an Authorized Sequel
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By John A. Sellers -- Publishers Weekly, 1/15/2009
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E.H. Shepard from the original books. © The Estate of E.H. Shepard. |
Benedictus, author of numerous books (though none for children), does have a bit of history with Milne’s honey-loving bear. He had previously produced audiobook adaptations of Milne’s original Pooh books, featuring the voices of Stephen Fry (Pooh) and Judi Dench (Kanga), among others. While working on post-production for those audiobooks—which required the approval of the Trustees of the Pooh Properties—he decided to write a pair of stories about Pooh and send them to the trustees (the four trustees own the copyright for the text and represent the estate of Pooh illustrator E.H. Shepard).
Eight years passed, according to Benedictus, but in 2006 he got a call from the trustees. Over the years the trustees had seen several proposals for sequels. “We had looked at a number of people, including my own poor efforts,” said Michael Brown, chairman of the trust, adding that the idea for authorizing a sequel had been in his mind “for a very long time.” But he said that the timing of the book’s release this year was a matter of various pieces coming together—including finding the right contributors.Ultimately, the trustees felt that Benedictus was the person most able to “reproduce the charm of the original.” They asked Benedictus to write an additional eight storylines to go with the two he had originally written. The new outlines met with their approval, and they commissioned him to write the stories.
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E.H. Shepard from the original books. © The Estate of E.H. Shepard. |
Editorial input on the new book came from the trustees as well as the publishing houses involved (deals with Egmont and Dutton were inked in 2008, but the publishers had been providing feedback prior to that). “Everyone wanted to get their finger in the pie,” said Benedictus. “At one point I wrote a cricketing story, because one thing Milne was keen on was cricket.” Given cricket’s somewhat niche appeal, alternate ideas were suggested (such as switching the focus to soccer or golf), though ultimately Benedictus said he “went back to cricket.”
But the author doesn’t begrudge the suggestions. “When dealing with Pooh and dealing with publishers who have published him for many years, I had to accept that I might not necessarily be right about everything,” he said. “Doing this is an interesting technical exercise. It brings you quite close to the mind of the author.” Benedictus’s research included studying his brother’s bound copies of Punch, the defunct British humor magazine, where Milne had worked as a contributor and assistant editor for a time, “to get inside his head.”
For Brown and the other trustees, the goal has been to create a sequel that captures the spirit of the original. “There are millions of people around the world who love these stories,” he said. “The wonderful thing about the [original] book, apart from its appeal to adults and children alike, is that it gets inside a child’s imagination. It’s a celebration of childhood.”
Brown noted that the response to the news of the sequel’s publication has been “absolutely tremendous,” though he added, “There will always be people who take the Eeyore approach and say sequels are dreadful.”
Though Benedictus declined to comment on whether additional books might follow or if new characters would be introduced, he did confirm that all of the familiar characters from the Pooh universe would be returning. However, he cautioned, “Pooh may have put on a few inches around the waist.”
