The wind in the willows - Kenneth Grahame

‘The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs . . .’

The Wind in the Willows, the story of Mole and Rat, of Badger and Toad, has been enjoyed by countless children ever since Kenneth Grahame first began to tell his own son a series of stories on the evening of his fourth birthday. The tale about a toad was continued over the next few years and the second half was written down in the form of letters.

Twenty years later, and to the author’s delight, Ernest Shepard came to illustrate the book and through his classic drawings the characters have become the intimate friends of all those who love the stories. Now the original illustrations are appearing in full colour, in an edition which reveals the delicacy and freshness of Ernest Shepard’s work.

As the author himself wrote, it is a book for those ‘who keep the spirit of youth alive in them; of life, sunshine, running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides’.