Christopher Milne

First-edition copy of The Enchanted Places, inscribed by Milne and signed by his nanny.

• Christopher Milne (English).
• London: Eyre Methuen, 1974.
• Inscribed by Milne on the front blank endleaf "Birthday Morning 1975 — but also to remember the one of forty years ago, sun shining through a window in St. John Street & lighting a vase of daffodils on a little blue table & to remember to happy days of Christopher Robin & Pooh — & to remember —," under that signed by Christopher's Nanny (Olive Christine Rand Brockwell) "Always Old Nanny XXX XX X," bookplate to half-title additionally signed by Milne "A Favorite Friend."
• Hardbound with original unclipped dust jacket.

Additionally, tipped to the front pastedown is an envelope in Milne's hand addressed to a Miss Elizabeth (Campbell) Hiskins containing a 2-page letter on Harbour Bookshop letterhead dated 28-2-75 which reads "How very nice of you to write to me: a letter like that couldn't possibly be a wol (sic). It made me very happy to think that I had helped make your birthday an enjoyable one. Yes, I have had a number of letters, many of the writers finding that the book awakened happy childhood memories, even though their own lives had been very different from mine. Often — as in your case — a common bond had been our skymen. I remember Michael and Geraldine well. So if you do ever see them again, please give them my best wishes. Yours sincerely, Christopher Milne."

The Harbour Bookshop was the bookstore owned and run by Milne and his daughter Clare, who was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. Milne remained close to his nanny all his life. This book The Enchanted Places is dedicated to her. Olive was born on 2/23/1895 and died in 1978. Milne's reply letter to Elizabeth is dated 2/28/75. It's interesting to think that Milne would have asked Olive, quite possibly on her 80th birthday, to sign a copy of this book that he was giving as a birthday present. We know of no other book signed by Olive.

Elizabeth Hiskins passed away in 2015. Assuming that Milne's reference of a birthday "forty years ago" in 1975 being her birth year, she would have been 80 in 2015.

Acquired by descent from the family.