Bibliograph

Eternal boy, the life of Kenneth Grahame, Matthew Dennison

Type

Label

Eternal boy, the life of Kenneth Grahame, Matthew Dennison

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

mapsportraitsillustrationsplates

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Eternal boy

Responsibility statement

Matthew Dennison

Sub title

the life of Kenneth Grahame

Summary

During the week Kenneth Grahame sat behind a mahogany desk as Secretary of the Bank of England; at the weekend he retired to the house in the country he shared with his fanciful wife Elspeth and fragile son Alistair and took lengthy walks along the Thames in Berkshire. The result of these pastoral wanderings was The Wind in the Willows: an enduring classic of children's literature; a cautionary tale for adult readers; a warning of the fragility of the English countryside; and an expression of fear at threatened social changes that, in the aftermath of the World War I, became reality. Like its remarkable author, it balances maverick tendencies with conservatism. Graham was an Edwardian pantheist whose work has a timeless appeal, an escapist whose withdrawal from reality took the form of time travel into his own past

Classification