Kenneth Grahame

Best known as the author of The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame actually spent most of his career working in a bank. He started out as a lowly minion at the Bank of England in 1879, he retired as its Secretary in 1907 (shortly after getting shot during an unsuccessful bank robbery), and he published The Wind in the Willows in 1908.

Note: It’s said that Grahame based the obnoxious, headstrong, deaf-to-common sense Toad of Toad Hall on his son. I always loathed Toad of Toad Hall, but now I feel kind of bad about it: Grahame’s son committed suicide when he was a teenager.

Note 2: A.A. Milne dramatized The Wind in the Willows in 1929 as Toad of Toad Hall.


Aftertaste:
None.

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
Anything by A.A. Milne