"Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A. Milne - not Disney! Quiz

Answer: Alan Alexander

Walt Disney did not write 'Winnie the Pooh'. It was written by Alan Alexander Milne, who was born in 1882 in London. Besides 'Winnie the Pooh', he also wrote 'The House at Pooh Corner', 'When We Were Very Young' and 'Now We Are Six'. Please read these wonderful books!

Answer: False

The character Tigger did not appear in the book 'Winnie-the-Pooh' at all. He first appeared in the book 'The House at Pooh Corner', in Chapter II, 'In which Tigger comes to the Forest and has Breakfast'. A A Milne makes interesting use of capitals (upper case).

In the case of this chapter title 'Tigger' is a proper name, the 'Forest' might be a proper name (such as the New Forest) or it might just mean 'a special place' and 'Breakfast' is capitalised to show that it is an important thing (or, as A A Milne would have it, an Important Thing). You should not try this yourself in your writing, unless you are very sure what you are doing and your readers are too.

Otherwise, it just looks wrong and that is A Bad Thing.

Answer: Sanders

The wonderful E H Shephard illustration in my book shows Pooh sitting there, not only with a name plate, but a real doorbell, so perhaps it came from someone's house. Piglet's house has a piece of broken board next to it which had 'Trespassers W' on it. Piglet says that it was his grandfather's name and short for Trespassers Will', which in turn was short for 'Trespassers William'. Don't tell Piglet, but I think that the broken board had once read 'Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted'.

A trespasser is someone who goes somewhere where they are not allowed, and these signs were put up to warn people that if they did go where they weren't supposed to, they would be in trouble with the law ('Prosecuted'.)

Answer: Hanging his washing

Rabbit explained that Pooh was taking up a good deal of room in his house and used his back legs (which were doing nothing, after all) as a towel-horse. What sort of Sustaining Book would you like to be read to you in those circumstances? (Don't worry, at the end of the week, Christopher Robin and Rabbit and all Rabbit's friends and relations were all able to pull Pooh out.)

Answer: The Chestnuts

We find this out in Chapter IV, 'In which Eeyore loses a Tail and Pooh finds One'. Pooh thinks it's so grand because it has a knocker and a bell-pull. It turns out that the bell-pull is Eeyore's tail, which Owl came across hanging over a bush in the Forest and pulled off! Many people name their houses after trees, and sometimes they might call their house 'The Willows' and there are no willow trees anywhere! Look at house names and see if they suit the houses.

Answer: The Six Pine Trees

Pooh and Piglet dig a Very Deep Pit and bait it with a (nearly empty) jar of Pooh's honey to catch a Heffalump. A Heffalump is their name for an elephant. Unfortunately, Pooh wakes up in the night and goes to eat the honey and gets his head stuck in the jar. Poor Piglet, waking nervously at dawn and peering into the Pit, hears Pooh give a loud, roaring noise of Sadness and Despair just as he's looking in.

He is very scared and runs to Christopher Robin, and feels a Foolish Piglet when he discovers the truth.

Answer: Fell down and burst it

When Pooh and Piglet find out that everyone (they think) had forgotten Eeyore's birthday, they are very upset and go home and get presents. Unfortunately, Pooh ate the honey he was taking to Eeyore, and Piglet tripped in a rabbit hole and burst the red balloon he was taking to Eeyore. Luckily, Pooh had the bright idea of getting Owl to write a label on the empty jar. (According to Owl 'HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY' actually reads 'A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh'). So Eeyore got a Useful Pot that he was able to put his (burst) balloon in and take it out. Of course, Christopher Robin hadn't really forgotten Eeyore's birthday, and he had a party with a cake with icing on the top, and three candles, and his name on in pink sugar, and Christopher Robin gave him a box of paints to paint things with.

Answer: True

Kanga and Roo appear in Chapter VII 'In which Kanga and Baby Roo come to the Forest, and Piglet has a Bath'. For some reason the animals don't like this, a Strange Animal coming to the Forest. Rabbit in particular disapproves of someone who keeps her family in her pocket, working out that if he were to do the same, he would need 18 pockets (including one for his handkerchief).

This sort of behaviour (fear of strangers or foreigners) is called 'xenopohobia'. This leads the animals to kidnap Baby Roo and put Piglet in his place.

This is frightening to Kanga, but she knows that Christopher Robin wouldn't let Roo come to harm, so she pretends she doesn't recognise Piglet and gives him a bath, which was a good punishment. It all ends happily, with Roo and Rabbit becoming friends, and Pooh and Kanga and Piglet staying friends with Christopher Robin.

Answer: Alexander Beetle

Poor Alexander! He didn't have anybody smaller to say "Hush!" to when the Expotition (which is their name for an expedition) came to a 'Dangerous Place'. Although it says he 'lived quietly with his Aunt ever-afterwards', A A Milne also wrote this poem in 'Now We Are Six' in 1927, the year after 'Winnie-the-Pooh' was published:

'I found a little beetle, so that beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a matchbox, and I kept him all the day...
And Nanny let my beetle out
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out
She went and let my beetle out-
And beetle ran away.

She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches, and she just took off the lid
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.

She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid-
And we'd get another matchbox, and write BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"

It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it might be ME,
And he had a kind of look as if he thought he ought to say:
"I'm very, very sorry that I tried to run away."

And Nanny's very sorry too, for you know what she did,
And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,
So Nan and me are friends, because it's difficult to catch
An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match.'

So maybe Alexander's life afterwards wasn't that quiet?

Answer: Pooh

The party was given for Pooh, who had rescued Piglet when the Forest was flooded. He was given a Special Pencil Case. The original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed toys, bought from Harrods of London by A A Milne, are kept in a glass case in New York City library.

In 1998 the late Labour MP, Gwyneth Dunwoody, attempted to get New York to give them back, pointing out that just as the Greeks wanted the Elgin marbles back from the UK, we should have the original animals back. The then-Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, got involved in the dispute. Why not go and say hello to them if you're in New York? I hope you enjoyed this quiz - let me know if you'd like to see one on 'The House at Pooh Corner'.