What was the impact of the First World War on AA Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh?
Winnie-the-Pooh is a book synonymous with childhood. Whether it’s the sadness of Eeyore, bounciness of Tigger or thoughtfulness of the bear himself, everyone has their favourite character from the beloved children’s book, which marks its centenary this year (2026).
But less is perhaps known about its author, beyond his famous initials and surname.
Published in 1926, the story of Winnie-the-Pooh appeared less than a decade after the end of the First World War, which A.A. Milne had served in. For the University of Worcester’s Professor of Children’s Literature, Jean Webb, this is significant and influences what he chose to write.
Alan Alexander Milne (A.A. Milne) enlisted in the British Army in 1915 and served in the trenches in France. His friend was killed not long after they had joined the frontline. He was caught up in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, where a million men were killed or wounded.
After being evacuated back to England in November 1916 with trench fever, Milne did not return to France for the remainder of the war. Though he recovered physically, the mental scars of war persisted for many years later, according to some accounts.
Although Milne’s writing post war, such as his poems, do reveal some of his thoughts about the war, its impact on the Winnie-the-Pooh story at first glance seems less obvious.
Though they are heartwarming tales about a boy and his teddy bear and friends, Professor Webb, sees the war’s impact and Milne’s response in the pages and the idealised childhood and gentle world he creates.
She said: “With Winnie-the-Pooh, he creates this story for his son. He comes back from the war, the horrors of World War One, and he wants to create a safe world, an enclosed world and one way to produce that kind of philosophy and approach is through whimsicality, which is what Pooh bear is all about.”
“The story is in this protected environment of the Hundred Acre Wood,” she added. “Within this world they are protected, their friendships are. And the sadness is about growing up and nostalgia, and that actually encapsulates, I think, the essence of Milne's experiences. Having been through the war, what does he want to create?”
Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh is part of the Arcadian period in children’s literature, said Professor Webb. This encapsulates works that all showcase idealised, safe, pastoral or magical childhood worlds, published from early 1900 through to the Edwardian period. Other key works include Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows.
But, despite the similarities that link these works together, there is something that, for Professor Webb, sets Winnie-the-Pooh apart from the others.
Comparing it to other Arcadian period children’s literature, she said: “In J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan the book has aspects that are really quite unpleasant and cruel. So you have that kind of impetus in Barrie's work, which wasn't about creating this gentle other world. They spend a lot of time fighting. They spend a lot of time dealing with jealousy.”
She added: “In Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, that is more gentle and it's a very protected world on the riverbank. But at one point Mole asks about what’s ‘over there’ pointing in the distance, and Ratty says it’s the ‘Wild Wood…we don’t go there’. So you've got that landscape, which is outside of this protected area.”
She highlighted how at one point in the Grahame’s story Mole goes off at nighttime and gets lost in the snow in the wood. “It's very threatening,” she said. “Also you have effectively the revolution of the underclasses represented by the stoats and the rabbits and the weasels who take over Toad Hall. It's not always an entirely safe world.”
“But in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, there is no real sense of threat anywhere,” she added. “Looking at A.A. Milne's work within the context of other work in this Arcadian period, it becomes very clear that Milne is moving away from any sense of direct conflict.”
Instead, Professor Webb said Milne portrays an idealised childhood, and the only sadness that intrudes is Christopher Robin having to go off to school at the end. She believes Milne’s experiences in the war and pacifist stance could well have influenced the style of book he chose to write.
“I think that it is about finding that place of peace,” she said. “He signed up because he was patriotic. Why did he not want to join the war? Because he was a pacifist. So he's got this conflict. So then what does he produce after the war? To resolve that conflict, he produces an idealised peaceful world which has its little social troubles.”
So how do Milne’s choices compare to other children’s writers who had seen warfare? Professor Webb points to Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, who was also involved in active war service. Although he sets his book in the tranquillity of the Lake District, there is still a contest between the two groups of children, said Professor Webb.
“That's why, to me, Milne stands out against all of these other writers in this very special creation of the Hundred Acre Wood,” said Professor Webb.
“He's not interested in that, exploring conflict. There might be someone a bit miserable one day, there might be a bit of upset, but it's all very gentle. The Swallows and Amazons books don't have that overarching sense of a gentle world, there's conflict, a practical world and it's moving more into the kind of realist texts that come afterwards.”
This choice is perhaps all the more remarkable given Milne’s background. Pre-war he was a satirist, writing satirical poems and articles for Punch magazine up until 1914.
Yet Professor Webb said the tone of the Pooh books is playful, a gentle social satire rather than any attempt at something more pointed or political.
Examples of this gentle satire can be seen in the adventures the characters go on. Professor Webb highlights one story in which Pooh and Piglet start on a journey to find a Heffalump and in actual fact, just go round in a circle back to where they started. In another example, Eeyore is sitting on a thistle and grumpy, but all he has to do is lift himself up and not sit on it. “It's not satire about situations, or political satire,” she said. “It’s social satire on the foibles of humanity. He isn’t interested in the politics or the outside world but merely his characters.”
So, ultimately Milne chooses to focus his drama on humanity and friendship, excluding the outside world.
Professor Webb said: “It's not a direct link to his war experiences, but there's an influence because it's ‘what can I do with my life after this war? I'm still here. My friend who I was standing next to isn't here. How do I deal with it? I have to carry on. What can I think about?’
“He creates a book that's about this society and how they interact with each other. It is this sense of community and friendship and caring. It isn't issues driven. It's about people. How do people deal with things? There are different ways, and this is what he did.”