Son 'gobsmacked' at Winnie the Pooh discovery

Simon Smith said he was "gobsmacked" by what he found in his father's collection

A son said he was "gobsmacked" to discover a collection of correspondence between Winnie the Pooh creator AA Milne, his illustrator and his publisher in his late father's private possessions.

Simon Smith came across the correspondence, also including a letter from Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien, when going through the estate of his father, Leslie Smith, from Malvern, Worcestershire, who had a lifelong career in publishing.

The collection is being auctioned on Thursday.

"We were just clearing out the attic and found a plastic carrier bag full of letters," explained Mr Smith.

"I knew we had some letters from authors. But I assumed it was our authors… playwrights that we handled.

"I thought he'd kept those in case they were worth anything in the future.

"We started going through them and found many signatures we couldn't even decipher - and then we found the AA Milne.

"We were a bit gobsmacked, to say the least."

Leslie Smith worked in publishing for most of his life

The collection also includes early drafts of Milne's work and a letter sent to Leslie Smith by Tolkien.

His son said he wanted them to go to someone who appreciated them.

He added: "There's four of us [children] and plenty of grandchildren and lots of great-grandchildren, so where would they go in the family?

"But we would like to see them somewhere useful."

The collection is due to go under the hammer on Thursday

Will Farmer from the auctioneers said: "We've got AA Milne's first introduction and first draft for [children's poetry book] Now We Are Six and original poems, original workings out for the Christopher Robin Birthday Book.

"These are incredibly unique.

"Within everything that everybody all around the world knows about Milne, [illustrator] EH Shepherd, Winnie the Pooh, these are to my mind probably one of the last little pieces of the puzzle that will complete the whole story."

Mr Farmer said Pooh was officially "the most financially important and the most recognised bear in the world".

The 34 lots, due to be sold by Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge, have been given a total guide price of £15,000.