Another Enchanting Classic…

As promised, to welcome the New Year, AbracaDABra! is launching a new adaptation of Kenneth Graham’s timeless tale, “The Wind in the Willows”.

Listen on Wednesdays at 7pm, in our bedtime ‘Story Hour’, with a second chance to hear each episode at 10am on Saturdays. The serialisation in 10 parts, is read by Hugh Hemmings and produced by the Serious Music Business.

The Radio Read-along feature we introduced last month will allow listeners to download the text of each chapter, follow along with the story and practice their reading skills.

The Wind in the Willows is a classic children’s book by Kenneth Grahame, originally published over 100 years ago, in 1908.

It tells the adventures of four animal friends who live along a river in the English countryside: Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger. The story is both notable and lovable for its mixture of mystery, excitement, morality and friendship.

Its first adaptaion was for the stage in 1929 by another famous author, A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh! It was based on the four chapters in the book that revolve around Toad and his extraordinary life.

There have since been dozens of other interpretations for film, the theatre, television and radio including an animated version in 1949 by Walt Disney entitled, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

Kenneth Graham had been serving as secretary of the Bank of England before writing his masterpiece and retired the same year it was completed. He then moved to the country where he spent much of the rest of his life enjoying similar activities to the characters he had so vividly created.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 1 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 2 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 3 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 4 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 5 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 6 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 7 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 8 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 9 here.

Download the PDF file of Chapter 10 here.

You will need Adobe Acrobat reader on your computer in order to view the file, this can be downloaded for free here.