The Wind in the Willows The Wind in the Willows The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow-moving and fast-paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals in a pastoral version of Edwardian England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality and camaraderie, and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames Valley. In 1908, Grahame retired from his position as secretary of the Bank of England. He moved back to Berkshire, where he had lived as a child, and spent his time by the River Thames doing much as
The Wind in the Willows the animal characters in his book do – as the book says, "simply messing about in boats" – and expanding the bedtime stories he had earlier told his son Alastair into a manuscript for the book. The novel was in its 31st printing when playwright A. A. Milne adapted part of it for the stage as "Toad of Toad Hall" in 1929. 1946 saw the first of several film adaptions. In 2003, "The Wind in the Willows" was listed at number 16 in the BBC's survey The Big Read. More than a century after its original publication, it was adapted