Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford but because of family circumstances he was unable to enter Oxford University. He joined the Bank of England as a gentleman clerk in 1879, rising to become Secretary to the Bank in 1898. He wrote a series of short stories published in such collections as The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898). These featured a fictional family of five children. In 1899 he married Elspeth Thomson and their only child, Alistair, was born a year later. He left the Bank in 1908 on health grounds. The same year, The Wind in the Willows was published. The book was not an immediate success, and he never attempted to write fiction again. However, the popularity of the novel grew steadily and by the time of Grahame's death in 1932 it was recognized as a children's classic.
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780192789389
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford Children's
Publication Date: 01-04-2024
Pages: 216
Age Range: 9 - 12 Years
Series: Oxford Children's Classics
About the Author
KENNETH GRAHAME was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and grew up in Berkshire. He started work at the Bank of England in 1879 and retired as its Secretary in 1908, the year that The Wind in the Willows was first published. The book was based on bedtime stories he told his son Alistair, who is said to have been the inspiration for the much-loved character of Toad.E.H. SHEPARD was born in London in 1879. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools and later worked for Punch magazine as a cartoonist and an illustrator. Shepard illustrated many books for adults and children, including A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. Shepard’s characterful illustrations of Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad, first published in 1931, have become an inseparable part of The Wind in the Willows, and are classics in their own right.
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