Mr Toad's Wedding

By: Martin Lake

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The wedding antics of Toad are told in this sequel with a measure of humour, particularly wit and farce, strongly reminiscent of Grahame's balance of humour in the original. Nigel McMorris, Chair, The Kenneth Grahame Society. In 2008 the Kenneth Grahame Society held a short story competition to write a short story in the style of The Wind in the Willows. Writers from around the world entered the competition. 'Mr Toad's Wedding' won first prize.

It tells the story of how Mr Toad lost his heart and almost lost his friends because of it. Martin Lake writes about the original much-loved characters from The Wind in the Willows and adds entertaining new ones: the easily flummoxed parson, Natalia Natterjack, the amphibian who won Mr Toad's heart and Chevalier Vicomte Tallyrand de Toad, the cousin even more bumptious than Mr Toad.

Most memorable of all is Mother-in-Law Natterjack: The huge shadow of Mother-in-Law Natterjack towered above Toad. He visibly quailed. She was a head taller than her daughter but in girth four times her size. The warts upon her stupendous head had long multiplied past the two or three which were considered comely for female toads, studding every part of her face so that her complexion resembled a pineapple. Her huge eyes were a deep yellow, as though they had sat in her head too long over the summer and were beginning to turn stagnant. She opened her mouth and a long, leathery tongue lolled out and wetted her face. She turned to Toad and her eyes widened in horror. "A Common Toad," she declaimed. "I had not realised you were a Common Toad."