Laverne in the Willows

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BBC Radio 4 Extra - Laverne in the Willows

Lauren Laverne celebrates Kenneth Grahame's classic tale, 'The Wind in the Willows'.

4 Extra Debut. Lauren Laverne celebrates one of her favourite books, explaining the appeal of classic tale ‘The Wind in the Willows’. From 2016.

Lauren Laverne has long been a firm fan of Kenneth Grahame's classic children's book 'The Wind in the Willows'.

Her favourite is that most sparky of characters Mr. Toad, whose desire to have everything and anything new makes him such a vibrant fore-runner of the modern consumer. 

Lauren sets about telling the story of the book and its creator, Kenneth Grahame, who came up with the adventures of Mole, Ratty and friends as bedtime stories for his headstrong young son Alistair - thought by many to be the model for Mr. Toad himself. 

Along the way Lauren will visit the school that once was home to the Grahame family, and where he turned the stories into the book we're now so familiar with. 

She'll also hear from the author of the 'How to Train Your Dragon' series of books, Cressida Cowell, about her own love of 'Wind in the Willows', as well as Tom Moorhouse, an Oxford University Ecologist who is writing a series of sequels to Grahame's classic tale. 

Producer: Geoff Bird

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2016.

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