wind in the willows | Song, by Toad

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Song, by Toad

Posted by Matthew in Rambling on 3 Oct 07 • 12 Comments »

Toad of Toad Hall

Ever wonder why this blog is called Song, by Toad? Yes is the answer, before you spend too long thinking that one over. Well I have explained that in the Song, by Toad? Eh? page up there on the sidebar – Toad of Toad Hall is an unbearably pompous but nevertheless endearing character from The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. As I was a little bastard as a child my mother took to calling me a little Toad, balking somewhat at more accurate but probably more expletive-laden epithets.

Anyhow, apart from the excellence of the book itself there was one reason in particular that we all loved the Wind in the Willows so very much, and that reason was Kenneth Williams. The idiosyncratically-voiced star of so many Carry On films actually recorded a truly wonderful cassette version of this story many moons ago, and when we were small we would listen to this tape time and time again on long car journeys.

Unfortunately, it has been impossible to track down a copy of this version, try as we might, so this little slice of our family history appeared lost to the mists of time. Until recently. Two copies appeared on eBay a little while ago, and I overbid ludicrously to make absolutely sure of securing them. So now, after some technical jiggery-pokery by my brother, who is a sound engineer, I can present to you, in all their glory, the excerpts from this recording that lead to this blog being given its name.

I’ve also added some clips to the aforementioned page alongside the appropriate text, but I thought I’d pop some of them up here too along with a couple of others, for the benefit of enlightening my readers.

Song, by Toad