FURTHER proof of the universal popularity of that Bear of Very Little Brain. Having survived Disney-isation he is now available in Yiddish as Vini Der Pu. He’s still keen on honey-krakh which he discovers with shouts of “Oy Gevalt!” And he lays
pu-pastke far hefalumpn in the hundert-akordiker Vald.
Following in the footsteps of AA Milne is Katie Chadd from Croydon, south London, who is to become the youngest ever
published author.
Katie was just seven when she wrote the story of Cyril the snail. This careless mollusc pops out of his shell and has trouble reclaiming it. The Snail Who Lost His Shell can now be found on sale at Tesco along with the Pot
Noodles.
Across the Channel, French children can view what is claimed to be the first unvarnished exhibition of France’s wartime history, 60 years after the country fell to German invasion.
Gilles Aubagnac, curator of the exhibition t the Invalides military musem in Paris said he had been determined to show how the Vichy collaborationist spirit had penetrated the population.
Meanwhile in Wales, the millennium bug struck again. An attempt to re-enact the prehistoric journey of a three-tonne bluestone from Pembrokeshire to Stonehenge ended in disaster. The Millennium Stone vanished from a platform between two replica Stone Age boats into 60 feet of water along with a pound;100,000 lottery grant. “Complete fiasco, utterly insane and a total waste of money,” said Dillwyn Miles, a Welsh historian.
Finally, a cautionary tale for GCSE candidates. Alex Greenland, 41, was refused a job by Shropshire County Council because he could not show them his certificate for O-level English. This despite the fact that Mr Greenland has a 20-year-record of working in public service. The moral of the story? Don’t mislay the evidence of your sucess.
