THE fact that we have just discovered that AA Milne had a confidential role as a First World War military intelligence propagandist puts a whole new spin on life in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Already a successful playwright and author, the military intelligence turned to him to give sanitised accounts of life in the trenches with posters of Lord Kitchener’s jabbing finger falling a little flat.

His role in the MI7b secret unit, which produced some 7,500 articles from 1916-18, came shortly before creating the first collection of Winnie-the-Pooh tales in 1926.

The thought of him being some sort of spy makes the mind hop about more than the excitable Tigger.

It’s a world away from the idyllic world of a rather simple but loveable bear with fluff for brains and an insatiable lust for honey that Disney took from pages in the 1960s and transformed into a movie franchise, spawning many spin-offs.

Also having a mind that’s prone to wandering off topic, it has made me wonder if Milne had allowed the two very disparate worlds to cross over in some sort of childhood toy version of Dad’s Army.

Taking a closer look at the characterisation in both the books and the films, it could be argued Owl’s role as a mentor to the other animals has a bit of military precision to it.

Leading his pals’ regiment he has a ye olde worlde ability to bumble a plan into failure.

The fastidious and nervous Rabbit would be his right-hand man; eager to help out but also with one eye placed firmly on the top job and thoughts wandering to how he could do it better.

Poor old, miserable Eeyore might even resemble a soldier suffering from shellshock, unable to come to terms with post-war life and being left slightly adrift from reality.

Winnie-the-Pooh would just day dream his way through the atrocities, penning awful poetry, snaffling extra rations and making up life stories of the trench rats.

Tigger would be an excitable youth with a foolhardy will to be involved who goes on to regret faking his papers to secure his place in the army.

Timid recruit Piglet would scuttle about not achieving an awful lot, while Christopher Robin would be safely holed up miles from the front, occasionally popping along to show willingness to muck in.

AA Milne probably made the right choice to keep these worlds completely separate.