The world has held great Heroes, As history-books have showed; But never a name to go down to fame Compared with that of Toad The clever men at Oxford Know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them knew one half as much As intelligent Mr Toad! The animals sat in the Ark and cried, Their tears in torrents flowed. Who was it said, “There’s land ahead?” Encouraging Mr Toad! The Army all saluted As they marched along the road. Was it the King? Or Kitchener? No. It was Mr Toad! The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting Sat at the window and sewed. She cried, “Look! who’s that handsome man?” They answered, “Mr Toad.

Grahame married Elspeth Thomson in 1899; they had only one child a boy named Alastair (whose nickname was "Mouse") born blind in one eye and plagued by health problems throughout his short life. Toad one of its four principal characters. Kenneth loved the sea and was happy there but when he was 5 his mother died from complications of childbirth and his father who had a drinking problem gave over care of Kenneth his brother Willie his sister Helen and the new baby Roland to Granny Ingles the children's grandmother in Cookham Dean in the village of Cookham in Berkshire.

Kenneth Grahame (8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a Scottish writer most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908) one of the classics of children's literature.