Hundreds of people are expected to descend on Ashdown Forest on Sunday to mark the 75th birthday of everyone's favourite bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.

Pooh, the honey-loving bear whose antics have been followed by generations of children all over the world, is perhaps best known for inventing the game of Pooh sticks.

And to mark his milestone, crowds are expected to flock to the famous Pooh Sticks Bridge in Hundred Acre Wood at Ashdown Forest, where the Milne family had a cottage.

The popular books by A A Milne have been translated into more than 40 languages including Thai, Chinese, Greek, Russian, Hebrew and Braille.

Other celebrations took place on Saturday where Smooth-talking actor Nigel Havers helped commemorate the occasion by reading sections from his favourite Winnie the Pooh stories at a store in west London.

Winnie the Pooh was named after a real bear called Winnie which lived at London Zoo.

He made his first appearance as the star of a short story called The Wrong Sort of Bees in the 1925 Christmas Eve edition of the London Evening News.

Psychologist Brian Sibley, who describes himself as a "poohologist" and is the author of Three Cheers for Pooh, said: "In Pooh's 75th birthday year we celebrate that original teddy bear who became, as Christopher Robin called him, 'the Best Bear in all the World'."