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The Path through the Trees
This second part of Christopher Milne's autobiography is a moving account of a young man's search for identity, of a struggling (but later thriving) bookshop, and of Milne's own family life in a small English country town.
Hardcover
First published August 31, 1979
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230 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Milne
26 books16 followersSon of A.A. Milne.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 28, 2018
I enjoyed listening to Peter Dennis read THE PATH THROUGH THE TREES: BEYOND THE WORLD OF POOH - Part 2. Christopher Robin Milne tells about his life from college years, serving in the Royal Engineers in North Africa and Italy during World War II, meeting and courting his wife Lesley, making their home and livelihood in Dartmouth, Devon, where they founded the Harbour Bookshop. THE PATH THROUGH THE TREES is a moving account of a young man's search for his own identity told simply, vividly, and often amusingly. 4 stars
September 5, 2015
If you have stopped to wonder whatever became of the real Christopher Robin Milne immortalized forever by his father's famous works after he grew up then you might enjoy this book. He talks extensively about his experiences as a sapper during World War II and of his career as a bookshop owner in Dartmouth. Some reviews find the section on book selling boring but as a librarian I enjoyed this behind the scenes look. It might surprise readers to know that C. R. Milne chose to support himself rather than from Pooh royalties though he did reluctantly agree to accept his inheritance upon the death of his father to guarantee financial stability for his severely disabled daughter. He was also effectively estranged from his parents, rarely seeing them after his move to Dartmouth and not seeing his mother at all for the last 15 years of her life.
February 28, 2015
Who hasn’t heard of Christopher Robin? Co-conspirator of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and co.—written in the quiet English countryside for the AA Milne’s son Christopher Robin Millne, and then Disney-fied for the whole world to enjoy. Shortly after being pulled into a Palm Springs thrift store by my daughter, I found myself looking at a “The Path Through The Trees” written by none other than the real Christopher Robin (Milne)—a story of a nervous stammering boy growing up in the shadow of his father’s fame—loving his father but also wanting a life of his own. After enlisting in the army, he found himself—as an officer in charge of a platoon of men building Bailey bridges in the Allied advance in Italy. Upon returning from war, another search for a peacetime identity brought him a new wife, and a new life as a bookstore owner Dartmouth. His venture into business, both cured him of stammering and fastened him to a cause. It is a sweet tale, using perhaps too many words, not now in fashion, but nonetheless captures a boy’s journey to manhood, fatherhood, and entrepreneurship, set in an age just over the horizon and made more compelling told by the real Christopher Robin: we all shared his childhood friends; thus it was intriguing to share his journey to manhood.
August 22, 2022
Christopher Milne spends this second memoir writing about all of the things in his life that did not have to do with Winnie-the-Pooh. In fact, Pooh gets only a brief mention at the end when Milne is discussing why he wrote his first memoir, The Enchanted Places. What he offers here is an engaging (and self-depricating!) tone as goes into great detail about his experiences in the military during World War II and his post-war life as a bookseller. While he may not be as open and vulnerable when discussing his wife, Lesley, and daughter, Clare, as one might hope it is abundantly clear how much he loved them and how central their happiness was to his own. If you're looking for the Pooh years definitely choose his first memoir instead, but if you are interested in the man himself, this one is a must-read because he gives his thoughts on war, success, disability, religion, legacy, and even (delightfully!) cats.
December 5, 2012
Having first listened to the enchanted places I had high hopes for the path through the trees. And I'm saddened to say I was pretty disappointed.
Though still written well, descriptive, and with a little of the a a Milne feel to it I just couldn't get into this one. I found myself looking forward to the end so I could move on to something else.
In particular I found the extensive recollections of c r Milnes time as a book seller relatively boring. Though I don't doubt that this was the largest and longest lasting part of his life, I found writing the book proportionately long in this area a drag, I kept waiting for the good stuff which never really seemed to come.
May 17, 2018
I found it fascinating to learn about the life Christopher Milne made for himself as a bookstore owner in Dartmouth after achieving unexpected fame as "Christopher Robin" in the Winnie-the-Pooh books.
July 2, 2025
In my case, the writing and its reception combined to lift me from under the shadow of my father and of Christopher Robin, and, to my surprise and pleasure, I found myself standing beside them in the sunshine, able to look them both in the eye.
Anyone who comes to this book hoping for more insight into Christopher Milne's relationship with his father is mostly going to be disappointed. Most people are going to find this book very boring. (In fairness, he did warn us that would be the case at the end of the first part of his autobiography, admitting that was the reason he was breaking it into two parts.)
Part two of his autobiography picks up where the first half left off. The first third of this book is about his experience in World War II, and the rest is about his life as a small-town bookseller.
While I don't fault anyone for passing on this after reading the first part, I did still enjoy it. Christopher's account of World War II is unlike any war story I've ever read. Yes, as an engineer he was mostly uninvolved in the fighting, by his own admission, but traumatic things still happened to him. And yet, he writes with such a level of zen that it's easy in places to forget what he's writing about. He once willingly walked into the middle of a minefield in order to disarm a hundred German mines, and he describes the ordeal decades later with such a level of calm assurance and poetic beauty that it produces a staggering level of cognitive dissonance.
The last two-thirds mostly delve into the minutiae of starting and running a bookshop, and any war history enthusiasts drawn in at first are likely to tap out. But given my adjacent line of work, I actually was quite interested in the history of independent bookselling, and the Milnes' business relationship with the local school system during Britain's education reform in the 60s.
It's not until the very end of the book that Christopher addresses his relationship with his parents again. He talks briefly about how the death of his father and subsequent fractured relationship with his mother drove him to sit down to write his autobiography in the first place. He talks about how conflicted he was over accepting royalties from his father's estate, but ultimately agreed to it in order to ensure a comfortable future for his disabled daughter. And the level of detail that went into the book up to this point, outlining his achievements and making clear how little help he had from his father, really becomes understandable. His independent professional success in his adult life was clearly something he felt he had to prove, even though I'm afraid very few readers will have the patience to indulge him.
He also mentions that his father did not want him to become a writer. If the consensus was that Christopher was a less skilled writer than his father, Alan worried that it would breed resentment in Christopher. If the consensus was that Christopher outshone his father, Alan worried that it would breed resentment in himself. Only after his father's death could Christopher bring himself to do more than dabble in writing, and it was ironically because he felt he had an obligation to his father, to set their stories down.
He describes every hour writing like an hour "on the analyst's couch," and that sense of catharsis from the first part of the autobiography comes back. The love for his father remains clear, even as he acknowledges how far apart they grew. He does not have to explain himself for writing down his own story despite of his father's wishes, but he does it in such a gracious way. And he is also like, "The critics said I did right by you and I think you'd be proud of me in spite of yourself, so there, Dad." Huge mood.
Sections towards the end of the book are also devoted to defending his atheism because Christians wrote him hate letters after the publication of the first part of his autobiography. He does this in a very understanding and nuanced way that I related to a lot, but he does also describe God as being like a giant marine tube worm. It makes sense in context, I swear, but it is also very funny.
My favorite parts were about the wild animals he and his family rescued, and about the gadgets he designed and built to give his daughter more independence. I am so glad Christopher Milne wrote down his "personal truths," because he really does seem like he was such a lovely man.
His story is endlessly charming, and it's a damn shame it's so hard to find.
Anyone who comes to this book hoping for more insight into Christopher Milne's relationship with his father is mostly going to be disappointed. Most people are going to find this book very boring. (In fairness, he did warn us that would be the case at the end of the first part of his autobiography, admitting that was the reason he was breaking it into two parts.)
Part two of his autobiography picks up where the first half left off. The first third of this book is about his experience in World War II, and the rest is about his life as a small-town bookseller.
While I don't fault anyone for passing on this after reading the first part, I did still enjoy it. Christopher's account of World War II is unlike any war story I've ever read. Yes, as an engineer he was mostly uninvolved in the fighting, by his own admission, but traumatic things still happened to him. And yet, he writes with such a level of zen that it's easy in places to forget what he's writing about. He once willingly walked into the middle of a minefield in order to disarm a hundred German mines, and he describes the ordeal decades later with such a level of calm assurance and poetic beauty that it produces a staggering level of cognitive dissonance.
The last two-thirds mostly delve into the minutiae of starting and running a bookshop, and any war history enthusiasts drawn in at first are likely to tap out. But given my adjacent line of work, I actually was quite interested in the history of independent bookselling, and the Milnes' business relationship with the local school system during Britain's education reform in the 60s.
It's not until the very end of the book that Christopher addresses his relationship with his parents again. He talks briefly about how the death of his father and subsequent fractured relationship with his mother drove him to sit down to write his autobiography in the first place. He talks about how conflicted he was over accepting royalties from his father's estate, but ultimately agreed to it in order to ensure a comfortable future for his disabled daughter. And the level of detail that went into the book up to this point, outlining his achievements and making clear how little help he had from his father, really becomes understandable. His independent professional success in his adult life was clearly something he felt he had to prove, even though I'm afraid very few readers will have the patience to indulge him.
He also mentions that his father did not want him to become a writer. If the consensus was that Christopher was a less skilled writer than his father, Alan worried that it would breed resentment in Christopher. If the consensus was that Christopher outshone his father, Alan worried that it would breed resentment in himself. Only after his father's death could Christopher bring himself to do more than dabble in writing, and it was ironically because he felt he had an obligation to his father, to set their stories down.
He describes every hour writing like an hour "on the analyst's couch," and that sense of catharsis from the first part of the autobiography comes back. The love for his father remains clear, even as he acknowledges how far apart they grew. He does not have to explain himself for writing down his own story despite of his father's wishes, but he does it in such a gracious way. And he is also like, "The critics said I did right by you and I think you'd be proud of me in spite of yourself, so there, Dad." Huge mood.
Sections towards the end of the book are also devoted to defending his atheism because Christians wrote him hate letters after the publication of the first part of his autobiography. He does this in a very understanding and nuanced way that I related to a lot, but he does also describe God as being like a giant marine tube worm. It makes sense in context, I swear, but it is also very funny.
My favorite parts were about the wild animals he and his family rescued, and about the gadgets he designed and built to give his daughter more independence. I am so glad Christopher Milne wrote down his "personal truths," because he really does seem like he was such a lovely man.
His story is endlessly charming, and it's a damn shame it's so hard to find.
March 10, 2022
Christopher Milne was the son of A. A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh books. The fictional Christopher Robin was an amalgam of A. A., Christopher, and imagination. But Christopher had to deal all his life with people wanting to meet the "real" Christopher Robin.
Christopher wrote about his growing-up years in The Enchanted Places. A Path Through the Trees overlaps the first book a bit, but mostly it tells of Christopher's life from the time he was in the Army, his search for a career, his marriage to his cousin, his life as a bookseller, the town of Dartmouth, where he and his wife settled, and the care of his daughter who was born with cerebral palsy.
I was sad to see that Christopher rejected God and turned to humanism.
Christopher is selective in what he shares. He says he's written a series of photographs more than a biography. Some parts were more interesting than others. I did find myself wondering if anyone
would read this if it was written by anyone other than "Christopher Robin."
Christopher wrote about his growing-up years in The Enchanted Places. A Path Through the Trees overlaps the first book a bit, but mostly it tells of Christopher's life from the time he was in the Army, his search for a career, his marriage to his cousin, his life as a bookseller, the town of Dartmouth, where he and his wife settled, and the care of his daughter who was born with cerebral palsy.
I was sad to see that Christopher rejected God and turned to humanism.
Christopher is selective in what he shares. He says he's written a series of photographs more than a biography. Some parts were more interesting than others. I did find myself wondering if anyone
would read this if it was written by anyone other than "Christopher Robin."
October 19, 2023
This is the continuation of The Enchanted Places: A Memoir of the Real Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh by Christopher Milne (the son of author A.A. Milne and the inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh character "Christopher Robin")—I read all five of his books in the order in which he wrote them. I was inspired to do so after I watched the rather apocryphal movie Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), which was (supposedly) based on The Enchanted Places.
I enjoyed learning the true story of Milne's life. He and his father had a pretty good relationship. Many of the sadder parts about the movie were simply not true, I was relieved to find out. Christopher Milne didn't start writing until very late in life. What he wrote indicates that he could have made a nice career as a writer. I'm happy to know that he had a nice life nonetheless. Sadly, Milne and his father adopted an atheist worldview related to their admiration of the work of William Winwood Reade.
I enjoyed learning the true story of Milne's life. He and his father had a pretty good relationship. Many of the sadder parts about the movie were simply not true, I was relieved to find out. Christopher Milne didn't start writing until very late in life. What he wrote indicates that he could have made a nice career as a writer. I'm happy to know that he had a nice life nonetheless. Sadly, Milne and his father adopted an atheist worldview related to their admiration of the work of William Winwood Reade.
June 11, 2024
Like the first one, this book is kinda all over the place.
Peter Dennis does a wonderful job narrating the audiobook, as usual.
The war years are fascinating. It's after that where he goes off the rails.
Chapter after chapter about how to run a bookstore, school book buying programs, Dartmouth, books he liked, pets, religion, blah blah blah. I almost stopped reading altogether.
Then, weirdly, he gets melancholy about losing his dad and talks about the riff with his mother. Weirdly, the first book blamed his father for pretty much everything and seemed to indicate that at least his mother made an effort to parent him. I assume that the change of heart was related to his parent's response to him marrying his first cousin (his father understanding and his mother very much against it). However, that is not mentioned in this book. In fact, he says he didn't talk to his mother for 15 years but never mentions why.
Anyway, I gave it a 3 but it's really a 2.5
Peter Dennis does a wonderful job narrating the audiobook, as usual.
The war years are fascinating. It's after that where he goes off the rails.
Chapter after chapter about how to run a bookstore, school book buying programs, Dartmouth, books he liked, pets, religion, blah blah blah. I almost stopped reading altogether.
Then, weirdly, he gets melancholy about losing his dad and talks about the riff with his mother. Weirdly, the first book blamed his father for pretty much everything and seemed to indicate that at least his mother made an effort to parent him. I assume that the change of heart was related to his parent's response to him marrying his first cousin (his father understanding and his mother very much against it). However, that is not mentioned in this book. In fact, he says he didn't talk to his mother for 15 years but never mentions why.
Anyway, I gave it a 3 but it's really a 2.5
Read
June 25, 2020After i read The Enchanted Places i was happy to start this follow-up. I am sorry to say i was really disappointed and somewhat heartbroken (because of who wrote this) when i found epithets in the narrative. Seriously? our very own Christopher Robin? Yes, it was common back then, the place and time and all that...but for me? it's not excuse or reason or anything. it's still wrong and it still hurts all of us. In this case, for anyone who missed it, it's the W word, commonly used against Italians.
I found it disgusting and it was hard to read on afterwards.
I was sad to learn of his split with his parents, although families do have problems, even in the hundred acre wood, it seems.
I found it disgusting and it was hard to read on afterwards.
I was sad to learn of his split with his parents, although families do have problems, even in the hundred acre wood, it seems.
March 23, 2024
The story of Christopher Robin all grown up. This was a story of a man and the life he lived after being famous for the books he father wrote. He did not connect well with his parents due to the life he lived. Someone truly passionate about books and selling books.
July 15, 2018
I found this interesting, but, a little slow moving and redundancy at times.
July 1, 2020
I enjoyed this better than the first book of his childhood. He lived a nice peaceful life and also survived a hellish war tour. Loved him talking about his daughter with CP.
July 11, 2020
A book to read to understand the sense of "the road less travelled" and to help one look for a path in life which is the one most suited, rather than the one most expected.
November 21, 2021
Audio book. Calmingly captivating content read with living care
February 1, 2024
This is my favourite volume in his autobiography trilogy. probably because it deals with his time as a bookseller. I have several editions of the three. it is a well known fact that it is not considered 'hoarding' when it comes to books . I even have a copy of "The path Through The trees" signed by the man himself. It may not be worth a fortune, but to me its a treasure..:)
September 21, 2010
Priceless, and together with The Enchanted Places, unique and will (obviously) stay unique for all time. This gentle, unassuming author is living evidence of the formative power of Pooh...and no perplex here, either.
did-not-finish
August 5, 2016I couldn't finish this one. I'm sad to say that I thought it was boring.
January 14, 2013
I enjoyed it. I liked his analogies--how life is like a walk through the trees, coming on vistas and unexpected places, either delightful or hard.
December 2, 2018
Christopher Milne was immortalised by his father and most people know who Christopher Robin is because of Winnie the Pooh most people don't know that he was an incredible young man who
fought the 2nd world war as he fought to escape his childhood namesake.
his devotion to his daughter is only briefly mentioned when in reality Milne was completely decrees to her.
loved reading about the Harbour Book shop which is now called Dartmouth Community Bookshop.
fought the 2nd world war as he fought to escape his childhood namesake.
his devotion to his daughter is only briefly mentioned when in reality Milne was completely decrees to her.
loved reading about the Harbour Book shop which is now called Dartmouth Community Bookshop.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews