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The Wind in the Willows

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The Wind in the Willows

By: Kenneth Grahame, Dina Gregory
Narrated by: Cush Jumbo, Harriet Walter, Aimee Lou Wood, Susan Wokoma, Jennifer Saunders, Raj Gatak, Clare Corbett, Gerard McDermott, Stephanie Racine
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About this listen

Experience the classic tale of The Wind in the Willows as you’ve never heard it before.

Meet Lady Toad, Mistress Badger, Miss Water Rat and Mrs Mole as they go about their adventures, messing around on the river, gallivanting in Lady Toad’s shiny new toy and fighting valiantly to save Toad Hall from unruly squatters.

In this retelling by Dina Gregory, The Wind in the Willows becomes a story about a group of female animals to be admired for their close sisterhood and fierce independence. Featuring original music and songs by Rosabella Gregory and sound effects captured on location, put your headphones on, sit back and lose yourself in the British countryside.

Cover artwork and illustrations: Melissa Castrillon.

Public Domain (P)2020 Audible, Ltd Classics Funny Feel-Good Scary Suspenseful

Listen to clips from the audiobook and meet the characters

<i>The Wind in the Willows</i>
Experience the wonder of Lady Toad's song
Mistress Badger encounters two friends in need of help
Mrs Mole and Miss Water Rat meet for the very first time
  • The Wind in the Willows
  • Experience the wonder of Lady Toad's song
  • Mistress Badger encounters two friends in need of help
  • Mrs Mole and Miss Water Rat meet for the very first time
Lady Toad | Vain, conceited, adventuresome, with an infectious warmth and zest for life, Toad calls herself 'Lady Toad' when in fact she is not properly titled. Her vanity is made worse by the fact she lives in one of the finest homes on the river. but for all Toad's self-preoccupation, she is a delightful creature - generous, loyal, affectionate and larger than life.

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Cush Jumbo
Harriet Walter
Aimee Lou Wood
Susan Wokoma
Jennifer Saunders

About the performer

Cush Jumbo is best known for starring in US series The Good Fight. She is the author of Josephine and I and received an OBE last year for her contribution to drama. Cush will take to the stage as Hamlet at The Young Vic in the near future and in 2021, will star as the lead in Britbox thriller The Beast Must Die opposite Jared Harris.

About the performer

Dame Harriet Walter is an award-winning British actress. She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and has worked extensively in theatre, film television and radio. Her television credits include Sky Atlantic’s The End, Belgravia, Killing Eve, Succession, The Spanish Princess and The Crown. Films include The Last Duel, Herself, Rocketman, The Sense of an Ending, Sense and Sensibility and Atonement. On stage she is best known for her Shakespearean work, for example as Lady Macbeth, Beatrice and Cleopatra but also as Brutus, Henry IV and Prospero in the all-female trilogy for the Donmar Theatre. She has also created many new characters for contemporary writers. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Birmingham University and is an honorary associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Harriet is also a writer and has published four books.

About the performer

Aimée Lou Wood is a British actress. She is best known for her debut role as Aimee Gibbs in the Netflix original comedy-drama series Sex Education and Sonya in the West End revival of Uncle Vanya. She can next be seen in feature film Louis Wain and season 3 of Sex Education.

About the performer

In 2020, BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Susan Wokoma starred in Amazon Prime Video’s Truth Seekers, Netflix’s Enola Holmes and Donmar Warehouse’s Teenage Dick. Previous to this, Susan filmed the BBC One series Dark Mon£y, Channel 4 comedy series Year of the Rabbit, comedic horror series Crazyhead, The Ghost and The House of Truth and the second series of the BAFTA award-winning Chewing Gum. She also appeared on stage in Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Additional screen credits include: Crashing, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Inbetweeners 2 and That Summer Day. Susan wrote and starred in the award-winning short Love the Sinner and has also written the screenplay for BBC Films Three Weeks.

About the performer

Jennifer Saunders is one half of the legendary comedy duo French and Saunders. She also wrote and starred in the award-winning and critically acclaimed television series Absolutely Fabulous. The feature film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie was released in the summer of 2016. Jennifer co-wrote and acted in Girls on Top, The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle and Jam and Jerusalem. Other television credits include Blandings, Josh, Stick Man, The Boy In The Dress, This Is Jinsy, Dead Boss and Friends. She wrote and starred in many of the 69 Comic Strip films. Recent credits include The Stranger and There’s Something About Movies. Jennifer has voiced characters in feature films such as Sing, The Minions and Shrek 2. In 2020, she recorded an episode of The Simpsons.

Dina Gregory
Rosabella Gregory

About the adaptor

Dina Gregory is a storyteller and lyricist who hails from Devon. She holds a Masters in Psychology, Physiology & Philosophy (PPP Joint Honours) from Somerville College, Oxford University, and a second Masters in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her musicals, plays, songs, arias and choral anthems have been performed at venues large and small, both in the USA and the UK. Her short stories—many penned for children—can be heard on Audible. One of Dina’s longstanding collaborators is her twin sister, singer-songwriter and composer Rosabella Gregory. During childhood, the pair divided their time between the piano and the moors. Many of Dina’s projects are written with Rosabella, including this The Wind in the Willows adaptation.

About the composer and singer

Rosabella Gregory is an award-winning singer-songwriter and composer. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, she has released three albums and performed throughout the UK and internationally, both as a solo artist and in support of the legendary Jools Holland on his Country House tour. Her musicianship has led to collaborations within Theatre, Television and Opera. Collaborating with her twin sister, Dina, has given Rosabella some of her most rewarding writing experiences, dating back to a rock opera they penned when they were teens (Mellisa’s Maelstrom), which was produced by English National Opera’s Baylis programme; right up to the present day and their collaboration on The Wind in the Willows.

Most relevant  
For the first time, I find this story interesting and relatable. Being retold with female characters, this story has now been bought to life for me. Thank you!

Wonderfully accessible

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Makes more sense that there are female characters as well as male. Delightful voices for the animals. Love the natural countryside sounds punctuating the story.
Maybe it is woke but it’s also about time half the population of creatures gets an airing.

Beautifully re-told.

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Refreshing, well presented, a joy to listen to! Vastly enjoyed this female-lead inspiration.... well worth having in the audio Library.

Lovely presentation

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Beautifully done! I read this as a child, but never felt I needed to go back to it. I was a bit apprehensive about an all-female version, but like the best translations, it brings out aspects of the book I hadn’t suspected were there.

Magnificent!

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I downloaded this audiobook because 1. It was free, 2. It’s The Wind in the Willows, and 3. Because it was making some people Big Mad. I can now therefore say that this is a perfectly lovely and entertaining telling of the story and those bad reviews are clearly from a place of misogyny and closed minds. Within minutes you forget that simply the pronouns have been changed as the performances and stories are captivating with no emphasis as to the fact that the characters are female now other than a miss or lady in front of their names. There are complaints that because this is a ‘retelling’ that it is completely different, but I find no evidence to that, truly and simply it is The Wind in the Willows. Starting by claiming that this is the true story and the original is the retelling I personally found funny as it is brash and is clearly the thing that got some reviewers so riled up which I applaud. There is no woke purposeful girl power scenes added as some people claim, it is simply what the male characters did because as I said, it is pure magical The Wind in the Willows and I can’t believe it was free. Also it’s a great thing to listen to in lockdown.

Don’t believe the harsh reviews, it’s The Wind in the Willows!

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Our five-year-old, like her older sister, has loved several incarnations of Wind in the Willows – picture books, radio dramas, audiobooks and the classic Cosgrove Hall film and TV series. She was thrilled when she realised this playful adaptation had gender flipped the characters. She’s pretty sharp about spotting the lack of female characters in the many classic takes we’ve shared with her. WitW is, sadly, a particularly egregious example. Are there any female characters beyond the gaoler’s daughter? Sad it’s upset so many grown ups when I suspect many girls are just as delighted as ours. Great cast and a wonderful idea that takes nothing away from the many hundreds of versions already out there (obviously).

A surprise and a delight for our 5yo

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I really enjoyed this production. The narration was excellent and the sound effects brought the story to life. I listened to this book as it was a gift, but if I had known how brilliant the narration was, I would have bought it myself. while the story was fair, and the character of Lady Toad irritated me a fair bit, that was all made up for by the brilliant production. Well done to all involved!

Brilliant Production

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Loved it. I listen while I work and it took me away from my work and into a lovely fantasy land. Absolutely thoroughly enjoyed it.

Such a lovely story

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“If they don’t like it they’ll always have that other version”

Well exactly. Audible currently has over twenty versions of The Wind in the Willows available. It’s not fair to rate this with a 1 star review when the performances are so good and the story and text has hardly changed. There is plenty of space for both versions and you can still enjoy the other or even both!

Great performances

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This is simply delightful. I don't think, as some reviews suggest, that it undermines or detracts from the original novel. It is simply another perspective. Jennifer clearly enjoys her role as Toad and listening to it made me smile .... so I recommend listeners simply enjoy it.

Delightful

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