To be surprised friend never heard of Winnie the pooh?

[Constantrunner]

She is an adult born and raised in this country. I mentioned the Winnie the pooh anniversary and was very surprised when she had no idea who he is. I am not sure how you can never have picked this information up.

I do find it astonishing that anyone could go through life and not hear about Winnie the Pooh. The merchandise is everywhere! Even if Pooh didn’t play much of a role during their childhood.

It was surprising to me because of the generation of the woman, her education, her profession and her nationality. I admit I wrongly made assumptions and was surprised by her lack of knowledge of Hound of the Baskervilles.
I agree with you it's very sad the woman OP is talking about didn't know about Winnie the Pooh. Especially given her age. But I think there will quite a few young children these days will have big gaps of experience in what used to be considered a normal part of childhood and growing up.

I worked with a man in his 30s, born and always lived in the UK, who didn't know what a nettle is.

That's hysterical. Was he from a very urban area? I can't imagine anyone British not knowing this, but one of my confused moments was watching an Australian friend plunge into a massive patch of nettles, whilst chasing a ball. He was wearing shorts and stood there shouting 'Help, help something's biting me!' and when we pointed out that he was standing in waist high nettles he just said in a pathetic little voice, 'What's a nettle?'

The rest of us fell about laughing.

Considering that many people just refer to Winnie as 'Pooh' in context, there must be a load of absolutely horrified people who hear this in all kinds of scenarios, having never heard of WtP!

I have never played pooh sticks or heard of it until Stickman. I didn’t read WtP books or watch him as I didn’t like it, know of him though. Don’t like Rupert either

I did read HoB those as I liked spooky stuff

Have you got a thing against bears?

@sittingonabeachI do love Paddington so just some bears!

What's your opinion on Sooty?
He's probably my favourite bear.
(Except the Care Bears obviously 💖)

Was obsessed with the Care Bears as a young dc! Hated Sooty Im afraid

I mean Soo is far superior to Sooty but she's a Panda so I don't think she counts.
When did we stop calling Pandas "Panda Bears" and Koala's "Koala Bears"?
When did that happen.
Cheer Bear was my favourite 🌈

No way 😄 she definitely knows

I just don't think HotB is all that prominent, even as the most prominent Sherlock Holmes book. It's probably fair to call it a genre classic but it isn't in the BBC's top 100 British novels list, or similar.

I'd be surprised if someone hadn't heard of Harry Potter, but unsurprised if they hadn't heard of The Order of the Phoenix. Ditto Holmes and HotB.

I once met a grown adult who didn't know who Henry VIII was.
And another who didn't know the Queen was called Elizabeth. When I told her she was like "noooo... Reeeaallyy?" Woman, it's written on every coin 😄

Certainly when I was younger Hound of the Baskervilles was one of thd best known Sherlock Holmes stories.
There have been multiple film adaptations - if you search on IMDB there are 30 versions come up , including TV adaptations and foreign language films.
Certainly a few years ago a lot of people might not have read it but it was famous as a film/ tv thing.
Probably you are right though that not so much now as it was then.

@Usernamesalltakenblueshow old are you can I ask?

That really is very funny. Especially when you consider that there are far more poisonous things in Australia than nettles.

Yes you can ask @fando
I have actually mentioned my age on numerous threads. But I don't see the relevance here and if i tell you i will feel the need tto change my user name again . The woman OP started the thread about was in her 50s. The woman i mentioned was about 50 - older than me- although the incident was over 20 years ago.
I'm certainly quite a bit younger than Winnie the Pooh. And an awful lot younger than Sherlock Holmes.
Actually I wish I'd never mentioned Hound of the Baskervilles. It was a conversation that sprang to mind when I opened the thread and I just put it in my post because just saying I was surprised the woman OP mentioned hadn't heard of Winnie the Pooh seemed a bit boring. I should have just stuck with boring!

Don’t think there was an opportunity until I was an older teen. Even then, it was just a stick race. I never equate it with Winnie the Pooh, even if someone says Pooh sticks. I think more along the lines of a poo stick 😂

I thought the action all took place in Dartmoor?

There's Scotland Yard, I suppose. Not the same as Scotland though.

That is background knowledge that is not included in the book, unless there's a one-line reference buried somewhere.

Arthur Conan Doyle is, or certainly was, an extremely famous author, if only because of his Sherlock Holmes character. If you are English then possibly the fact he is Scottish might have escaped your attention. But for many Scottish people his Scottish origin is well known. So not really background information imo. The woman who I mentioned - and i sincerely wish now I hadn't - who didn't know The Hound of the Baskervilles, was an extremely proud Scot.

PBP?

Oooh I loved that film ! Thanks. Going to track it down.

I've heard of the bogeyman (he used to live under my bed) but didn't realise his first name was fungus.