A.A. Milne the author of the Winnie the Pooh books was born on 18th January 1882 and is worthy of a mention because he is the creator of one of my favourite fictional characters - Eeyore! Milne had published many novels for adults, non-fiction books and articles before all of that was forgotten as a result of the success of 'Winnie-the-Pooh' which was first published in 1926. Eeyore is described in the books as an 'old, grey donkey', he has a detachable tail, which he tends to lose, eats thistles and lives in the Hundred Acre Wood in a house of sticks - 'Eeyore's gloomy place:rather boggy and sad'. Eeyore does have a tendency to be quite sarcastic and does not really rate many of the other animals and his gloomy pessimism is often quite touching. But more often than not he makes me laugh!
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| The original Eeyore as drawn by E.H. Shepherd |
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| The Disney version of Eeyore | |
So, Happy Birthday A.A. MIlne and thank you for Eeyore!
