Loss and loneliness stalked Kenneth Grahame, the author of The Wind in The Willows.
He claimed he had only enjoyed one brief period in his life: his carefree childhood on the banks of the Thames. He becomes a reluctant adult struggling with a soul destroying job, an unstable wife and a troubled and disabled child. But it is Kenneth Grahames obsession with childhood that finally leads to the greatest tragedy of his life.
This plays action flows freely through Grahames memories in soliloquies and extracts from his letters. He loved nature and once said he preferred places to people. The play explores how his stubborn belief in the innocence of rural tranquillity creates a gift of literature for an admiring world but ultimately destroys his own family. It explores his relationships, with his wife, friends and primarily with his son Alistair, for whom The Wind in Willows was written. The Wind in the Willows has not been out of print since it was published. Kenneth Grahames reverence for rural comradeship is timeless, as is his protest against industry and the loss of nature.
