The Wind in the Willows

One Spring morning, Mole abandons his spring cleaning and surfaces into the sunlight and warm grass of a great meadow. Rambling busily along the hedgerows he comes all at once to the edge of a river. Mole is entranced. Here on the river bank he meets the Water Rat. Mole stays with the Water Rat in his snug waterside home where the river laps at the sill of the window and here he meets Ratty’s friends, Badger who lives in the Wild Wood and the incorrigible Toad of Toad Hall. A timeless tale of waterside Britain that has been loved by generations of children and acclaimed as a classic. The story of Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad and their escapades, whether messing about on the river or poop-pooping in Toad’s shiny new car, cannot fail to enchant every listener. Many of the original cast from Alan Bennett's acclaimed National Theatre production appear in this dramatisation for BBC Radio 4, including Richard Briers as Rat, Adrian Scarborough as Mole and Terence Rigby as Albert with Alan Bennett as the narrator.

2 CDs. 2 hrs.

Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh on 8 March 1859. He was brought up by his grandmother in Cookham Dene in Berkshire and went to school in Oxford before starting work at the Bank of England. He was unable to go to university because of his family's lack of money. His stories and essays were initially published in periodicals such as theYellow Book and then collected together as Pagan Papers (1893). This was followed byThe Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898). The Wind in the Willows (1908) is based on letters and stories that Graham made for his only child, Alistair. The novel's popularity grew slowly over the years and A.A. Milne's dramatisation of the novel as Toad of Toad Hall brought it greater success. Kenneth Grahame died on 6 July 1932.