A study of the life of A.A.Milne, from his childhood, when he was educated at his father's school Henley House and taught by H.G.Wells, through his early days on Granta and Punch, to the flowering of his careeer in the 1920s and 1930s. Milne wrote a series of West End plays, including Mr Pim Passes By, and numbered among his friends P.G.Wodehouse and J.M.Barrie. It was for his son, born in 1920, that Milne wrote the four great children's books of his maturity: When We Were Very Young, Now We are Six, Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. Revealing Milne's complexity, this biography tells of his strong political feelings, his often difficult personal relationships, and how his successful children's books became an almost intolerable burden. Ann Thwaite was awarded the 1990 Whitbread Biography of The Year for this book.