An Enchanted Place

Winnie the Pooh as you’ve never imagined him—reincarnated as a human being, Bertie; still writing poetry, still fond of honey.

Piglet has become Peggy, Bertie’s timid neighbor, who sees danger around every corner. Initially intimidated by a newcomer to the village—a flamboyant actor known as Bouncer—might she eventually find him to be someone in whom she can confide?

Bouncer lodges with Sheila, a single mom from Australia with an obsessive devotion to her small son Joey, and with a tendency to call a wallaby a “bloody wallaby.”

None of them, however, are remotely aware of their “past lives,” not even the learned professor who lives alone at The Cedars and chairs the local History Society.

All of them live in the village of Hartfield (A.A. Milne’s former hometown) on the edge of the Ashdown Forest. Bunny lives there, too—no longer a rabbit, but the formidable and optimistic organizer of an action group to fight a proposed bypass across their beloved forest. Only the retired Major, a gloomy recluse who lives alone in a rundown cottage on the edge of the village, believes their protests are doomed to failure.

As the saga unfolds, these members of Bunny’s action group begin to learn a lot more, not only about conservation, politics, and ecology, but also about one another. Each of them also begins, in their own way, to make a connection to Bertie’s interest in what he calls “a bigger picture.”

Meanwhile could a very small inhabitant of the forest itself become a surprising ally?

Underpinning this “not in our backyard” story is the question of “progress” versus the need for a human scale and a gentler pace to life while protecting a unique, beloved, and ancient woodland. The book touches lightly on themes of life, death, nature, the human spirit, and meaning.

As a BAFTA-winning filmmaker, Jonathan Stedall writes from deep awareness of our interconnectedness with nature and the world.