The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows is a book for those "who keep the spirit of youth alive in them; of life, sunshine, running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides." So wrote Kenneth Grahame of his timeless tale of Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad, in their lyrical world of gurgling rivers and whispering reeds, a world which is both beautiful and benevolently ordered. But it is also a world threatened by dark forces--"the Terror of the Wild Wood" with its "wicked little faces" and "glances of malice and hatred"--and defended by the mysterious Piper at the Gates of Dawn. In the end, Grahame triumphantly succeeds in conveying his most precious theme: the miracle of loyalty and friendship. This tale of four friends and their adventures is a timeless classic that will inspire and delight listeners of all ages.

About the Author :
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. When he was not yet five, his mother died of scarlet fever, after which he was sent to his maternal grandmother's house at Cookham Dean near the Thames. His father virtually abandoned his children to relatives, and Kenneth was sent to boarding school in Oxford at the age of nine. Disappointed of his dream of going on to university, he was instead given a job as a clerk in the Bank of England, where ultimately he became Secretary. He achieved fame as a writer with his recollections of childhood, The Golden Age and Dream Days published in 1895 and 1898. The Wind in the Willows, turned down by several publishers as a poor sequel to the earlier books, began as a bedtime story told to his only child, Alistar, whose tragic death at twenty was so great a sorrow that he and his wife lived in eccentric seclusion thereafter. In a life of much sadness it seems that all he found pleasurable in this world he put into the best-loved children's book of all time. Mary Woods is a veteran narrator of Talking Books for the Library of Congress, and received the Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award for fiction in 1996. Formerly a radio news director, she now hosts a daily local affairs interview program on Catholic Radio, for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. She lives in Albuquerque, where she continues to act on stage and in film.

Review :
"The Wind in the Willows, like A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, tunes us into childhood mysteries with pitch-perfect style." -- "Globe and Mail (Toronto)" "A book which everybody in the household loves and quotes continually...a book which is read aloud to every new guest and is regarded as the touchstone of his worth." -- "A. A. Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh" "The Wind in the Willows is a wise book." -- "Vainty Fair"