Eternal Boy

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, ‘tempted… [by] the treasures of hedge and ditch; the rapt surprise of the first lords-and-ladies, the rustle of a field-mouse, the splash of a frog’

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.

In timpul saptamanii, Kenneth Grahame statea in spatele unui birou de mahon ca secretar al Bancii Angliei; la sfarsit de saptamana, s-a retras in casa din tara pe care o impartea cu sotia sa fantezista Elspeth si cu fiul fragil Alistair si a facut plimbari lungi de-a lungul Tamisei in Berkshire, „ispitit ... [de] comorile de gard viu si sant; surpriza rapita a primilor domni si doamne, fosnetul unui soarece de camp, stropirea unei broaste. Rezultatul acestor rataciri pastorale a fost Vantul din salcii: un clasic de durata al literaturii pentru copii; o poveste de avertizare pentru cititorii adulti; un avertisment cu privire la fragilitatea peisajului englezesc; si o expresie a fricii la schimbarile sociale amenintate care, dupa primul razboi mondial, au devenit realitate.