E H Shepard

Long before he was completely remade into the puffy, shiny, balloonish, merchandise selling icon that we know today, Pooh was a bumbling little bear owned and written about by children's author Alan Alexander Milne. I was lucky enough to find one such publication in one of my many trips to musty London book shop. Flicking through the pages of the weather worn pages of the second edition classic I was constantly blown away by the inky illustrations of E H Shepard. To me, it's these drawings I really love and attribute to the early success of the character. So I'm glad to see that Disney have recently begun to bring back this style for Winnie the Pooh. 

Not many people also know this but E H Shepard also illustrated the original Wind in the Willows and. To be honest, I only just found out about this in researching this. Interesting to know he also won the Military Cross during the First World War. Sadly though, both Shepard and Milne greatly regretted the creation and success of  Winnie the Pooh, as it greatly overshadowed any work they did in later life. I for one, am glad they did for the originals  still remain some of my favourite children' s novels.