Animal tales Peter, Toad et al
Walk with Mole, Peter, Fiver, Fuzzypeg – the beloved characters of childhood who fuelled our love for the countryside and all its creatures.
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
by Kenneth Grahame
Who hasn’t, like Mole, decided a walk in the spring sunshine would be much more fun than cleaning? So begins this classic tale of Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad ‘messing about in boats’ on the river. Inspiration came from Grahame’s early childhood at Cookham Dean on the banks of the Thames in Berkshire, with nearby Quarry Wood reimagined as the Wild Wood, and Mapledurham along the river as a possible model for Toad Hall. EH Shepard was asked to illustrate and Grahame said: ‘I love these little people; be kind to them.’
WATERSHIP DOWN*
by Richard Adams
Some animal stories are cute, but this tale of a band of rabbits fleeing the destruction of their warren is a nail-biting thriller. The rabbits – Hazel, Fiver, General Woundwort – talk, but Adams was careful otherwise to model their habits on real bunnies, while exploring epic themes like tyranny and freedom. The writing is often beautiful, particularly in its conjuring of the titular down in Hampshire, a real hill near Adams’ hometown of Whitchurch.
THE SQUIRREL, THE HARE AND THE LITTLE GREY RABBIT
by Alison Uttley
‘I believe in them. Mine aren’t made up, they’re real… I was born in a place of beauty… I talked to all the animals.’ That place was Castle Top Farm near Cromford in Derbyshire, set among a maze of footpaths south of Matlock; Uttley’s childhood here provided inspiration for over 100 books including the popular Little Grey Rabbit series (and the autobiographical A Country Child), delightfully illustrated by Margaret Tempest.
THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT*
by Beatrix Potter
Potter is best remembered for her tales of ‘rabbits in jackets’, but she was also a keen mycologist, hill-farmer and conservationist, gifting thousands of acres of the Lake District to the National Trust. The Cumbrian scenery features in many books – Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle washes clothes in Newlands Valley, Squirrel Nutkin rafts to an isle on Derwent Water, and Mr. Jeremy Fisher goes angling in Moss Eccles Tarn, a short walk from Potter’s long-time home in Near Sawrey near Hawkshead.
SPRING STORY*
by Jill Barklem
The first of four seasonal stories about a community of mice living in Brambly Hedge is utterly charming, with Barklem’s words and intricate illustrations capturing the rural idyll of Epping Forest near London – a place she knew well. The mice mill flour, spin yarn and make preserves, often using real methods from England’s agricultural past, and Barklem even tested all the recipes. The Lake District features in the later book The High Hills, and the Norfolk coast in Sea Story, but Epping is the star of the series, where many of the particular trees Barklem drew still stand.