LETTERS TO THE MOUSE WHO TURNED INTO A TOAD...

Cover:  Watercolour by ERNEST H. SHEPARD
(from Private Collection)

Anyone who knows anything about The WIND In The

WILLOWS will probably know that it started (like some other

'children's' classics, apparently) as a bedtime tale for the author's own

offspring (in this case, Kenneth & Elspeth Grahame's only child,

Alastair), and continued in a series of letters to him while holidaying

separately from his parents with his governess in Littlehampton.  This

was because the child, known as 'Mouse' didn't want to miss the

animal adventures his father told him about each evening in

order to get the restless infant off to sleep.

A page from one of the letters

These letters, thoughtfully preserved by the governess
(Naomi Stott) and returned to the Grahames, became the
basis of Kenneth's enduring classic of literature, loved by gen-
erations  of children (and adults) ever since it was first published
in October 1908.  The above edition reproduces the letters, and
makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the genesis
of the finest book of its kind ever to appear in print.

Photo:  Alastair - by RICHARD SPEAIGHT

If not for Alastair, the Riverbank tale might never have been

written, but, alas, there was no happy ending for the boy who was

the template for Mr. TOAD.  A difficult, troubled lad, he suffered

from poor health throughout his life (being born blind in one eye) and

committed suicide two days before his 20th birthday by lying on rail-

way tracks while an undergraduate at Oxford University.  Out of con-

sideration and respect for his father, Alastair's death was officially

recorded as accidental, but it was a tragic end to the mouse

who inspired the most famous toad in the world.  

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