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Post by Patrick on Oct 1, 2009 6:07:59 GMT
"A new character called Lottie the Otter is to grace the new Winnie-the-Pooh book, publishers have announced.
The much-loved bear's new friend, who appears in Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, is said to be a "feisty" character who will cause a stir.
The first official follow-up to AA Milne's The House At Pooh Corner, written in 1928, will reveal what happened next to Pooh and friends.
The book is due to be published on 5 October in the UK and US.
The book, which features 10 new stories, is expected to become available in 50 languages around the world.
Lottie, who will feature alongside established favourites including Tigger and Eeyore, is also said to be good at cricket and is a stickler for etiquette.
The book's author David Benedictus said: "Lottie the Otter truly embodies Winnie-the-Pooh's values of friendship and adventure seen throughout Milne's work, thus making the perfect companion for everyone's favourite bear."
Michael Brown, chairman of the Trustees of the Pooh Properties, added: "David's new stories, including the new character, arise naturally out of that world and so, like the original stories, are timeless.
"We hope the new character will appeal to readers of all ages worldwide." Grrrrr!  Constant bloody tinkerig with things!
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Post by riotgrrl on Oct 1, 2009 6:32:16 GMT
But Winnie the Pooh is SO quintessentially English.
Do you even have otters in England?
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Post by Patrick on Oct 1, 2009 9:42:27 GMT
But Winnie the Pooh is SO quintessentially English. Do you even have otters in England? Personally I think we should invade the U.S and repatriate Winnie and all his friends! Otters indeed! |
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Post by aubrey on Oct 1, 2009 10:13:19 GMT
We have a few otters, don't we?
But, god, I hate feisty characters.
It's going to be like when they put that dog into Itchy and Scratchy.
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Post by trubble on Oct 1, 2009 10:20:34 GMT
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Post by aubrey on Oct 1, 2009 10:27:36 GMT
Well may you laugh.
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Post by riotgrrl on Oct 1, 2009 10:30:23 GMT
But why would an otter be living in the Hundred Acre Wood? It's just not right.
Aubrey, you are spot on with the Itchy and Scratchy scenario.
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Post by aubrey on Oct 2, 2009 8:24:07 GMT
And I heard someone on Breakfast this morning using the word "Proactive," which was precisely the word ridiculed in that episode of The Simpsons as the kind of word used by a person who has no ideas of their own.
Still, I'm not that bothered; I was never a great fan. (I came to it too late; and then of course there was the Wodehouse thing, which put me off Milne; and the subsequent piss-take of the whole Christopher Robin thing Wodehouse did in "The Purification of Rodney Spelvin.")
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Post by jean on Oct 6, 2009 22:46:55 GMT
She looks better than Disney's version, anyway.  |
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Post by housesparrow on Oct 7, 2009 6:05:37 GMT
My initial reaction to a new Pooh book was "sacrilege!" but I'm warming to the idea.
David Benedictus said on the radio yesterday (or was it the day before?) that Lottie originally was to be a grass snake.
I'm not sure whether otters were ever native to Ashdown Forest ( where you will find Pooh Bridge) but tigers and kangaroos weren't , either. All the Pooh characters were soft toys, weren't they?
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Post by jean on Oct 7, 2009 7:52:43 GMT
Yes they were - that's what worries me a bit about Lottie. Those whiskers are a bit too real. Do you even have otters in England? There's a bit of foreshore near where I live called Otterspool, so I suppose we did once. But the only otters I've ever actually seen were in Scotland. |
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Post by percyplum on Oct 7, 2009 8:48:23 GMT
Of course we have otters in England. Has no one read Tarka the Otter, or walked the Tarka Trail in the West Country.
There used to be an otter sanctuary near Bungay on the Waveney valley. Don't know if it's still there.
But yes, they are native animals. Just not sure they were ever in Ashdown Forest!
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Post by trubble on Oct 7, 2009 12:32:09 GMT
There was a river, so an otter is not completely off the radar. This sequel cannot be worse than some of the latest Disney offerings. Disney added a gopher and turned Chritopher Robin into a girl! Even by the pictures, you can see that there is a love for the original and an attempt to stay faithful.  www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/books/05pooh.html?hpwThe author says he has made Eeyore ''a bit more proactive'' which concerns me but I suppose Eeyore couldn't be less proactive. <<Sigh with happiness, thinking of Eeyore et al>> (I love those stories so much that I never believe anyone likes them as much I do). There were ''alive'' characters but they had a minor part - there were Rabbit's Friends & Relations. Remember the time they lost Small? ----------------------- Thinking about it, I'd like to read the book. My only hesitation is that the stories ended with Christopher Robin saying goodbye to Winnie-the-Pooh. He goes off to school and says goodbye to childhood - One of the saddest pieces of writing I've ever read, it gets me every time. This book begins with Christopher Robin returning to 100-Acre wood on his hoildays but you can never go back. That's the whole point of the last chapter of House at Pooh Corner. |
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Post by percyplum on Oct 7, 2009 12:51:52 GMT
And how many tigers (Tigger) has anyone seen in Ashdown Forest?
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Post by trubble on Oct 7, 2009 12:53:41 GMT
You can't use Tigger as an example.
He was lost!
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Post by trubble on Oct 7, 2009 12:59:34 GMT
Did anyone have Winnie-the-Pooh toys when they were young?
I had a Kanga and Roo. They were made from a brown/grey material that had a slightly rough texture and Kanga had a satinish fuschia belly and little Roo could fit in her pocket; like Eeyore I spent time putting Roo in the pocket, out of the pocket, in the pocket, out...
It was exquisite. It was homemade, I suppose from a Sale of Work. Kanga's neck eventually weakened so much that her head was always lolling on her chest so she had to play games where she lay down a lot.
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Post by jean on Oct 7, 2009 15:44:09 GMT
Tigger wasn't 'real', but I was forgettimg Rabbit - he was, and not just his friends and relations.
And so was Owl.
I feel that Christopher Robin ought to be riding a mountain bike on that terrain, but I'm glad he isn't.
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Post by trubble on Oct 7, 2009 16:41:03 GMT
Tigger wasn't 'real', but I was forgettimg Rabbit - he was, and not just his friends and relations. And so was Owl. Just so. In the  I forgot to distinguish between 'real' and 'toy' for the main characters. As my defence I cite the case of The Velveteen Rabbit.  from: The Page at Pooh Corner webpage"Christopher Robin first received that most famous of teddy bears as a present for his first birthday. Eeyore was a Christmas present in 1921, and Piglet was a gift from a neighbor in Chelsea. Kanga and Roo appeared in the nursery in 1925. (Roo had disappeared many years before this photo was taken.) Tigger didn't show up in the nursery until after Now We Are Six had been written. The other characters of Owl and Rabbit are based on animals that lived in the surrounding area of the Milnes' Cotchford Farm.
The toys made a tour of the United States in 1947. Milne provided a 'birth certificate' to travel with the toys. Dutton Publishing, Milne's American publisher, insured the toys for $50,000, a vast amount of money in those days. They toured the U.S. for about ten years, then ended up in the offices of Dutton. Dutton was able to convince Milne to let the toys remain in America. They remained at the Dutton offices until 1969, when they made a short trip to England (flying as VIPs in the Concorde) for a Shepard exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and again until 1987 when the toys were permanently moved to the Central Children's Room of the Donnell Library Center, a branch of the New York Public Library." |
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Post by housesparrow on Oct 7, 2009 19:08:11 GMT
Roo disappeared? Tragic.
But now Trubble has put my mind to it, I can remember playing with a kanga with a roo in the pocket - and I think the roo disappeared.
Jean, cycling is prohibited in Ashdown Forest. If Christopher Robin tried it, he would be looking at an ASBO.
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Post by aubrey on Oct 7, 2009 20:02:48 GMT
That's what we want to hear - CR with an ASBO.
There is a story by Geo. Alec Effinger where 40 acre wood is invaded by little soldiers. People keep saying it will be all right when Christopher Robin gets here, he'll sort it out, and Eeyore says, "I don't think ..."
I'll try and find it tomorrow.
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