Winnie the Pooh as you've never imagined him – reincarnated as a human being, as Bertie; still writing poetry, still fond of honey.
Piglet has become Peggy, Bertie's timid neighbor who sees danger round every corner. Initially intimidated by a newcomer to the village, a flamboyant actor known as Bouncer, might she eventually find in him someone to whom she can confide?
Bouncer lodges with Sheila, a single Mum 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 – the former home of A.A.Milne – on the edge of the Ashdown Forest. So, too, does Bunny – 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, thinks that 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. And each of them, in their own way, also begin 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 the '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, ancient woodland. The book touches lightly on the themes of life, death, nature, the human spirit and meaning.
As a BAFTA-winning filmmaker, Jonathan Stedall writes from a deep awareness of our interconnectedness with nature and the world.
