Queen Camilla marks 100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh with visit to woodland that inspired classic
The Queen visited Ashdown Forest, the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood, to celebrate a century since the beloved children’s books were first published.
Camilla arrived in East Sussex on Tuesday on her first visit as patron of the Royal Literary Fund. It commemorated Winnie-the-Pooh’s 1926 debut, met children’s writers and unveiled the new all-weather ‘Queen Walk’ trail.
The woman, who arrived in the forest in her black Range Rover on Tuesday morning, was wearing a green leaf-patterned dress.
The picturesque woodland, close to author AA Milne’s former home, provided a magical setting for his stories inspired by walks he took with his son Christopher Robin.
The Queen will visit ‘Poohsticks Bridge’, where the pair play ‘pooh sticks’, and try her hand at the game with three winners of the Winnie-the-Pooh themed poetry competition organized by Ashdown Forest in conjunction with the Royal Literary Fund (RLF).
RLF is the world’s oldest literary charity helping professional writers in financial difficulty.
Since 1972, £91 million has been raised from Milne’s estate towards charity, contributing to writers’ endowments, education and outreach programmes.
The rights to Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books were left to his family, the RLF and other organisations.
Those set to meet the Queen include Julia Donaldson, author and illustrator of The Gruffalo Dame, and Axel Scheffler, author of the official Winnie-the-Pooh sequel, Jane Riordan.
Meanwhile, Camilla will pay tribute to Milne and Winnie-the-Pooh original illustrator EH Shepard in “The Enchanted Place,” where Christopher Robin bids farewell to the animals in the books.
There he will meet local school children and volunteers at Ashdown Forest before opening the Queen’s Walk to make it easier for future generations to visit the forest.
