If you spent your childhood reading Winnie the Pooh, the latest fan fact might just leave you stuck in your tracks like Pooh’s hand in a honey pot.
Winnie the Pooh is in fact a girl and she’s from Canada – not England.
The reveal is all thanks to a new book “Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear” – where we learn that Winnie is actually named after a black bear from London Zoo who is also called Winnie.
Winnie, as in short for Winniepeg.
The new book comes courtesy of Sophie Blackall and Lindsay Mattick – who is the granddaughter of the soldier responsible for bringing Winnie to England.
According to Bustle, Lieutenant Harry Colebourn bought the bear for just $20 during the First World War.
They became inseparable, until he had to leave Winnie at the London Zoo so he could continue on to France. Winnie was soon adopted by a new best friend though – Christopher Robin.
Enchanted by the animal, Christopher Robin named his own teddy bear after the furry animal.
So how does this all play out into our childhood favourite books?
Christopher’s father was author A. A. Milne, who went on to write the classic Winnie books starring his son and his loveable companion.
The rest, we know, is history.
