The First Book
The Wind in the Willows
About the book
The Wind in the Willows came out in October 1908. Kenneth Grahame, then secretary of the Bank of England, had started the story years earlier as bedtime tales for his only son Alastair, who was frail and nearly blind, and who would die at twenty. Early reviewers couldn’t quite place a story about a Mole and a Water Rat messing about in boats. Theodore Roosevelt read it to his daughter and championed it; A. A. Milne adapted it for the stage in 1929 as Toad of Toad Hall.
Introduction by Robbie
This was the first complete book I read to Gilly. It began with me deciding to read The Piper at the Gates of Dawn on 8 September 2020, and that began the move from ‘just’ the poems to the whole novels. When I asked if she’d like the whole book, she said yes.
And during the reading, on 17 November, she said: “You should do a Wind in the Willows podcast or a series of same.” She saw where this was going before I did.
The book means a lot to our family. My father, who we came to call Père when I was a teenager, a name that lasted until he died in 2001, loved it, and when I was a little boy, six, seven and eight maybe, we used to go to London from Kent, where I grew up, and see the stage show at Christmas time. The same actor played Mole year after year, I think he was in his 80s when we last went. Gilly herself had memories of it from childhood: the snow story, Toad’s trial, the river. And listening again brought them back, layered now with new feeling.
The Wind in the Willows is where the daily practice of poetry became something larger. It is the root of everything that followed, War and Peace, Dickens, Tolstoy, nearly six years of reading. It all started here with a little Otter who went missing and the great god Pan.
What Gilly Said
Much enjoyed. Many thoughts of Pere and boats.
23 October 2020
Kindness, care and teaching, can a water rat mentor a mole?
25 October 2020
Yes, let’s make this Wind in the Willows week.
28 October 2020
I had completely forgotten the snow story. You do read so beautifully. I hope badger hears them…
30 October 2020
Does Toad remind you of anyone?
5 November 2020
The court and sentencing of Toad had a brutality I had forgotten but hearing again was reminded of how much it upset me when I was little. The sentencing is disproportionate and although a child would not have known that word, she could have felt it.
9 November 2020
Was worrying about mole and much relieved when he appeared.
15 November 2020
The caring Mole provides with the “tools” needed to write poetry…
16 November 2020
That was just lovely. You should do a Wind in the Willows podcast or a series of same.
17 November 2020
I wonder why Ratty became anxious and fussing.
21 November 2020
Listen to the complete Wind in the Willows reading either directly here on the site or on your preferred platform
Episodes
32 recordings · Listen in order or pick a chapter