A.A.Milne was born in London in 1882. He began writing as a contributor to Punch magazine, and also wrote plays and poetry. Winnie-the-Pooh made his first appearance in Punch magazine in 1923. Soon after, in 1926, Milne published his first stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, which were an instant success. Since then, Pooh has become a world-famous bear, and Milne's stories have been translated into approximately forty-different languages. E. H.Shepard famously illustrated both Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows though, like A A Milne, much of his career was devoted to work for the satirical magazine Punch. To do the illustrations for Winnie-the-Pooh, Shepard observed the real Christopher Robin Milne, but not the real Pooh. The bear in the pictures is in fact based on Growler, a toy belonging to Shepard's own son.