A. A. Milne was born in England in 1882, the third and youngest son of London schoolteachers. As a boy he wrote verses, parodies, and short humorous pieces for his school’s paper. He went on to study at Cambridge. In 1903 he left school to write. Before long he was supporting himself on his earnings, and became an editor at Punch magazine. In 1913 he married Dorothy de Selincourt. He began his military service in 1915 in Europe. During this time he wrote three plays, all of which were produced on the London stage. Christopher Robin Milne was born in 1920. It was Christopher’s toy bear, pig, donkey, tiger, and kangaroo that became the inspiration for the famous Pooh books. A. A. Milne wrote more plays, a novel, his autobiography, and political nonfiction, although he is best remembered for Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, and Now We Are Six. Milne died in 1956.
Stephen Fry is an English actor and author. As well as being the bestselling author of four novels, The Stars’ Tennis Balls, Making History, The Hippopotamus, and The Liar, and the first volume of his autobiography, Moab is My Washpot, he has played Peter in Peter’s Friends, Wilde in the film Wilde, Jeeves in the television series Jeeves & Wooster and Laurie in the television series Fry & Laurie.
Judi Dench is an English actress and author. Dench has been a mainstay in film and television since the eighties, with starring roles in Masterpiece Theatre and the James Bond series.
Michael Williams is the bestselling author of On the Slow Train, On the Slow Train Again, and Steaming to Victory. He is a journalist, academic, and author who writes, blogs, and broadcasts on railways and other subjects for many media outlets, including the Independent, the BBC, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, and the New Statesman, as well as the specialist railway press. He is also a travel writer, having covered the world for a variety of publications. He lives with his family in Camden Town, London, not far from St Pancras—Britain's most splendid railway station.
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE, is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, a British sitcom. His film appearances include A Fish Called Wanda and Tomorrow Never Dies.