Book Review: The Real Kenneth Grahame

 

The Real Kenneth Grahame

The Tragedy Behind The Wind in the Willows

by Elisabeth Galvin

Pub Date 30 Nov 2021 | 

 Pen & Sword,  White Owl

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  History|  Nonfiction (Adult)

I am reviewing a copy of The Real Kenneth Grahame: The Tragedy Behind The Wind in the Willows through Pen & Sword, White Owl and Netgalley:

Kenneth Grahame who was born in 1859 and died in 1932 was a Scot who wrote one of the most  quintessentially English books.  When he was only four years old his Mother died, and his father became an alcoholic, so Kenneth grew up with his grandmother who lived on the banks of the beloved River Thames. Forced to abandon his dreams of studying at Oxford, he was accepted as a clerk at the Bank of England where he became one of the youngest men to be made company secretary.  In 1903 Kenneth narrowly escaped death when he was mistaken for the Bank’s governor and shot at several times. He wrote secretly in his spare time for magazines and became a contemporary of contributors including Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw and WB Yeats. Kenneth’s first book, Pagan Papers (1893) initiated his success, followed by The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898), which turned him into a celebrated author. 

His novel that is the most famous today, was the one that was the least successful in his lifetime.  The Wind in the Willows (1908) originated as letters to his disabled son, who was later found dead on a train line after a suspected suicide. Kenneth never recovered from the tragedy and died with a broken heart in earshot of the River Thames. His widow, Elspeth, dedicated the rest of her life to preserving her husband’s name and promoting his work.

I give The Real Kenneth Grahame: The Tragedy Behind the Wind and the Willows five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!