Kenneth Grahame

Kenneth Grahame was a children’s fiction author from Scotland that was best known for his most popular work “The Wind in the Willows” that he published in 1908. When he was a toddler, his father who was a failed lawyer was appointed a sheriff’s deputy in Argyllshire. Kenneth was happy living by the sea in the small town but things changed when his mother died of scarlet fever when he was five. His father who had become an alcoholic gave up Kenneth and his siblings to his mother whom the children called Granny Ingle. Their grandmother had a dilapidated but spacious home in idyllic surroundings in the country that the children called it ‘The Mount.’ It was here that they would be introduced to boating and the riverside and the curator of Cookham and also their uncle David Ingles. The delightful surroundings especially the River Thames and Quarry Wood are believed to have been the inspiration for “The Wind in the Willows.”Between 1868 and 1875, Kenneth Grahame went to St. Edward’s School where he excelled in both sports and academics. But his family had financial constraints and did not have the money to pay for his university studies. Between 1875 and 1879, he was working for David Ingles his uncle who ran a parliamentary agents office. In 1879, he got a job with the Bank of England as clerk. By 1898, he was Secretary to the Bank but he still retained an interest in writing. He started writing light nonfiction articles though he never wanted to become a children’s author. He became a contributor to journals such as “The Yellow Book,” “WE Henley’s National Observer” and the “St James Gazette.” Since he still worked for the bank, all of his works were published anonymously. Writing for the National Observer he dealt with a range of subjects from nature, to traveling and smoking pipes. During this time, he also began travel to places outside London, played billiards at Toynbee Hall and also went fishing. By this time he was suffering from several health problems and in 1907, he retired from the bank and went to live in Berkshire in the countryside.