Treasure trove of Winnie-the-Pooh letters unseen for nearly a century are found in loft

A rare haul of letters and drawings exchanged between the creators of Winnie-the-Pooh goes under the hammer tomorrow, after being found in a loft.

- Yassin El-Moudden

The archive contains first-draft manuscripts by the author A.A. Milne, including his poem Wind on the Hill, as well as a dedication for his 1927 collection Now We Are Six, and a drawing of Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet in the snow.

There is also a stern reprimand from Milne in response to an Observer crossword that referred to his creation as a "fabulous monster".

He told his publisher Frederick Muller that "Pooh strongly objects" and was threatening to come to the publishing house and make his position clear.

The collection came into the hands of the publisher Leslie Smith when his firm took over that of Muller, whose company was behind the Winnie-the-Pooh books.

The letters—some of which had not seen daylight since 1926—were discovered in a plastic bag by Smith's children when they cleared out his loft following his death in November 2023. They include Muller's exchanges with Milne and with E.H. Shepard, the illustrator.

Will Farmer of Fieldings Auctioneers, which is arranging the sale, received the material about five months ago when the Muller family were unsure what to do with it.