To my great delight, I was approached to write an introduction to the new Oxford Children’s Classics edition of The Wind in the Willows. This book has been a touchstone at many pivotal points in my life, and so it feels like a great honour to introduce it to new readers.
So if your young readers are fans of my stories, but haven’t read this classic, why not get them this edition in which I wax lyrical about the importance of Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toady in my life.
The Wind in the Willows is one of my top five favourite children’s books of all time, but it’s much more than that to me. It is a sort of talisman, a song, a signpost, a crutch and a hug, bound in paper, but printed on my soul. We all have books that made us, and this one, more than most, made me.