The Winnie-the-Pooh stories are set in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, England.

The forest is an
area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty situated 30 miles (50 km) south-east of London. In 1925 Milne, a
Londoner, bought a country home a mile to the north of the forest at Cotchford Farm, near
Hartfield. According to Christopher Milne, while his father continued to live in London "...the
four of us – he, his wife, his son and his son's nanny – would pile into a large blue, chauffeur-
driven Fiat and travel down every Saturday morning and back again every Monday afternoon.
And we would spend a whole glorious month there in the spring and two months in the
summer."[8] From the front lawn the family had a view across a meadow to a line of alders that
fringed the River Medway, beyond which the ground rose through more trees until finally "above
them, in the faraway distance, crowning the view, was a bare hilltop. In the centre of this hilltop
was a clump of pines." Most of his father's visits to the forest at that time were, he noted, family
expeditions on foot "to make yet another attempt to count the pine trees on Gill's Lap or to search
for the marsh gentian." Christopher added that, inspired by Ashdown Forest, his father had made
it "the setting for two of his books, finishing the second little over three years after his arrival".[9]

Many locations in the stories can be associated with real places in and around the forest. As
Christopher Milne wrote in his autobiography: "Pooh’s forest and Ashdown Forest are identical."
For example, the fictional "Hundred Acre Wood" was in reality Five Hundred Acre Wood;
Galleon's Leap was inspired by the prominent hilltop of Gill's Lap, while a clump of trees just
north of Gill's Lap became Christopher Robin's The Enchanted Place, because no-one had ever
been able to count whether there were 63 or 64 trees in the circle.[10]

The landscapes depicted in E. H. Shepard's illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh books were
directly inspired by the distinctive landscape of Ashdown Forest, with its high, open heathlands
of heather, gorse, bracken and silver birch, punctuated by hilltop clumps of pine trees. Many of
Shepard's illustrations can be matched to actual views, allowing for a degree of artistic licence.
Shepard's sketches of pine trees and other forest scenes are held at the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London.[11]

The game of Poohsticks was originally played by Christopher Milne on the wooden footbridge,
[12]
across the Millbrook,[13] Posingford Wood, close to Cotchford Farm. It is now a tourist
attraction, and it has become traditional to play the game there using sticks gathered in the
nearby woodland.[12][14] When the footbridge had to be replaced in 1999, the architect used as a
main source drawings by Shepard in the books, which differ a little from the original structure.

First publication
Winnie-the-Pooh's debut in the 24 December 1925 London Evening News

Christopher Robin's teddy bear made his character début, under the name Edward, in A. A.
Milne's poem, "Teddy Bear", in the edition of 13 February 1924 of Punch (E. H. Shepard had
also included a similar bear in a cartoon published in Punch the previous week[15]), and the same
poem was published in Milne's book of children's verse When We Were Very Young (6
November 1924).[16] Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name on 24 December 1925, in a
Christmas story commissioned and published by the London newspaper Evening News. It was
illustrated by J. H. Dowd.[17]

The first collection of Pooh stories appeared in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. The Evening News
Christmas story reappeared as the first chapter of the book. At the beginning, it explained that
Pooh was in fact Christopher Robin's Edward Bear, who had been renamed by the boy. He was
renamed after an American black bear at London Zoo called Winnie who got her name from the
fact that her owner had come from Winnipeg, Canada. The book was published in October 1926
by the publisher of Milne's earlier children's work, Methuen, in England, E. P. Dutton in the
United States, and McClelland & Stewart in Canada.[18]

Character

In the Milne books, Pooh is naive and slow-witted, but he is also friendly, thoughtful and
steadfast. Although he and his friends agree that he is "a bear of very little brain," Pooh is
occasionally acknowledged to have a clever idea, usually driven by common sense. These
include riding in Christopher Robin's umbrella to rescue Piglet from a flood, discovering "the
North Pole" by picking it up to help fish Roo out of the river, inventing the game of Poohsticks,
and getting Eeyore out of the river by dropping a large rock on one side of him to wash him
towards the bank.

Pooh is also a talented poet and the stories are frequently punctuated by his poems and "hums".
Although he is humble about his slow-wittedness, he is comfortable with his creative gifts. When
Owl's house blows down in a windstorm, trapping Pooh, Piglet and Owl inside, Pooh encourages
Piglet (the only one small enough to do so) to escape and rescue them all by promising that "a
respectful Pooh song" will be written about Piglet's feat. Later, Pooh muses about the creative
process as he composes the song.

Pooh is very fond of food, particularly "hunny", but also condensed milk and other items. When
he visits friends, his desire to be offered a snack is in conflict with the impoliteness of asking too
directly. Though intent on giving Eeyore a pot of honey for his birthday, Pooh could not resist
eating it on his way to deliver the present and so instead gives Eeyore "a useful pot to put things
in". When he and Piglet are lost in the forest during Rabbit's attempt to "unbounce" Tigger, Pooh
finds his way home by following the "call" of the honeypots from his house. Pooh makes it a
habit to have "a little something" around 11:00 in the morning. As the clock in his house
"stopped at five minutes to eleven some weeks ago," any time can be Pooh's snack time.

Pooh is very social. After Christopher Robin, his closest friend is Piglet, and he most often
chooses to spend his time with one or both of them. But he also habitually visits the other
animals, often looking for a snack or an audience for his poetry as much as for companionship.
His kind-heartedness means he goes out of his way to be friendly to Eeyore, visiting him and
bringing him a birthday present and building him a house, despite receiving mostly disdain from
Eeyore in return.