Kenneth Grahame

Born in Edinburgh in 1859, Kenneth Grahame was a British writer, best known for his children’s novel The Wind in the Willows.Grahame had a difficult childhood; his mother died of Scarlet Fever when he was five, and his father had a drinking problem, so care of Grahame and his siblings was taken on by his maternal grandmother in Berkshire. This period living in a rundown house near the Thames, inspired his later writing.He aspired to attend Oxford University, but was unable to due to the costs. Instead, he worked for the Bank of England, where he rose to the position of Secretary. He married and had one son, Alastair, nicknamed Mouse. The bedtime stories that Grahame shared with Mouse formed the basis for The Wind in the Willows.Graham died in Berkshire in 1932, and is buried next to his son, who died twelve years earlier.