Once upon a time: Chichester Probus Club members recall favourite childhood books

The speaker was retired college lecturer Nigel Gossop, now a history and literary researcher. His talk concerned lesser known facts behind some favourite children’s books.

First up was Black Beauty, narrated by the eponymous horse who had a hard life as he was passed from owner to owner, eventually being rescued after collapsing with exhaustion. It led to the formation of The Horse Trust charity which provides retirement and respite for working horses and ponies.

It was written by Anna Sewell, who led a nomadic life at a time when horses were an essential mode of transport. She was paid under £40 for her book which was to become one of the best sellers of all time with 50 million copies sold.

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island had to be heavily edited for children as they were terrifying. In fact the word barbecue in the latter was the lingo for human meat.

Contrary to a popular guess, Never Never Land in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, the tale of the boy who avoided growing up, had nothing to do with Michel Jackson but was likely to come from The Never Never, the Australian term for the Bush.

Another children’s favourite, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was rejected six times by publishers. She self-published it and it was seen by a London publisher who agreed to print it in the same form with coloured pictures. She was later to marry him.

Nigel went on to say how A.A.Milne’s character Winnie-the-Pooh got his name. Winnie was the name of a bear at London Zoo, who was actually female and brown. His young son came up with Pooh who said that, if you called a swan and it didn’t come, you could always say ‘Pooh’ and walk away.

The final book in Nigel’s list was J.J. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. He said that Portsmouth Library bought three first editions. Two were sold for £1,400 but the third could not be traced. A first edition was later sold at auction in America for £42,OOO. Inquiries about its provenance were ongoing.

The club is open to new members who have or have had a career in business or Government in their own right. More details at https://chichesterprobus.club