KENNETH GRAHAME was a Scottish writer who passed on this date in Pangborne, Berkshire; He is most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), a classic of children’s literature, as well as The Reluctant Dragon. Both books were later adapted for stage and film, of which A. A. Milne’s Toad of Toad Hall, based on part of The Wind in the Willows, was the first. Other adaptations include Cosgrove Hall Films’ The Wind in the Willows (and its subsequent long-running television series), and the Walt Disney films (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Reluctant Dragon).

Grahame wanted to attend Oxford University, but was not allowed to do so by his guardian on grounds of cost. Instead he was sent to work at the Bank of England in 1879, and rose through the ranks until retiring as its Secretary in 1908 due to ill health, which may have been precipitated by a possibly political shooting incident at the bank in 1903. Grahame was shot at three times, but all the shots missed him.

An alternative explanation, given in a letter on display in the Bank museum, is that he had quarreled with Walter Cunliffe, one of the bank’s directors, who would later become Governor of the Bank of England, in the course of which he was heard to say that Cunliffe was “no gentleman”. His retirement was enforced ostensibly on health grounds. It is also recorded that Cunliffe bullied Grahame in his position.

Classic children’s book The Wind in the Willows was author Kenneth Grahame’s gay manifesto, claims an academic at Cardiff University, Peter Hunt. The bewitching riverbank tales of Ratty, Mole and Toad of Toad Hall is actually a story with more adult themes. 

The emeritus professor in English and children’s literature at Cardiff University said that there was reason to believe Grahame was gay despite having a wife and child. And, once he considered a gay subtext to the all-male tales, it was impossible to read the book in any other way than ‘as a gay manifesto.’ “It’s hiding in plain sight,” he said of the book that has soothed and delighted many young generations of readers.

Grahame career coincided with a time before the decriminalization of homosexual acts, with Hunt suggesting the works were manifestations of a life he longed for.

Grahame, his wife and their son lived in Cookham Dean, Berkshire from 1906, though the author spent much of his time during the week at his London home which he shared with Walford Graham Robertson. 

Robertson, a theatre set designer was a close friend of Oscar Wilde, the acerbic Irish playwright and important figure in the gay community at that time. Another connection with the gay community was with Constance Smedley, a family friend who helped get The Wind in the Willows published.