“Eyeore Alone,” by Ernest H Shepard

“Eeyore Alone”.

Alone.

Poor Eyeore. Of course, he would be alone on his birthday that no one has remembered.

Did you remember? No of course not. I didn’t either.

But the Guardian remembered. They wrote a whole article about him and how great a literary character Eeyore is (“archetypal” is what they said). You can read it here (which is surely the least we can do).

A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh books, is a literary giant in my mind and a huge inspiration in my work, his character Eeyore being just one example of his genius. I love Piglet. I love Pooh. Actually they’re all my favorites. I chose a poem of Pooh’s for poem in your pocket day.

And, in particular, I was inspired so much by Winnie the Pooh when I was writing Handbag Friends that there is an Eeyeore’ish character called Binky who is a bit anxious about everything and always worried about what will happen… and has a blanket called Niss.

Here is a happy video for today of the Handbag Song, sung by (none other than) the Handbag Friends — which is not only a treat for you and your little ones but a sort of a Birthday song for poor Eeyore. (ALthough PS: Watch out for CLASP!)