Spring has finally arrived, and with it, new adventures. Friends Rat and Mole go on a river cruise or stop by Toad Hall to visit their friend Toad. Toad is a friendly fellow, but he obsesses over the latest fads. From boats to horse-drawn caravans, his adventures get bigger and bigger. When Toad discovers the shiny, fast motorcar, Mole and Rat have more on their hands than they can handle. The two team up with Badger to save their friend...but more trouble awaits them than they could possible imagine. Scottish author Kenneth Grahame wrote this tale of friendship and forgiveness, which was first published in 1908 in the UK. This is an unabridged version of the 1913 edition, with illustrations by Paul Bransom.
Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh, Scotland but in early childhood, after being orphaned, moved to live with his grandmother on the banks of the River Thames in southern England. He was an outstanding pupil at St Edward's School in Oxford and wanted to attend Oxford University but was not allowed to do so by his guardian on grounds of cost. Instead he was sent to work at the Bank of England in 1879, and rose through the ranks until retiring as its Secretary in 1908 due to ill health. In addition to ill health, Grahame's retirement was precipitated in 1903 by a strange, possibly political, shooting incident at the bank. Grahame was shot at three times, all of them missed. Grahame's marriage to Elspeth Thomson was an unhappy one. They had only one child, a boy named Alastair, who was born blind in one eye and was plagued by health problems throughout his short life. Alastair eventually committed suicide on a railway track while an undergraduate at Oxford University, two days before his 20th birthday on 7 May, 1920. Out of respect for Kenneth Grahame, Alastair's demise was recorded as an accidental death. Kenneth Grahame died in Pangbourne, Berkshire in 1932.
