As a child I watched far too much TV. There was a show called
Tales of the Riverbank. The
stars of the films were real animals, who were shown moving around in miniature
boats, cars, balloons and aeroplanes. I loved seeing rodents rushing downstream
in rickety water-crafts.
I live near the river in Oxford, and there’s nothing I’d be so
excited to see as a water-vole rowing a tiny boat down the Thames.
The original messing about in boats is of course in The Wind in the Willows. And I’ve
recently finished making the illustrations for a story set slap-bang in Wind in
the Willows territory, so in this post I’m going to have a look at Kenneth
Graham’s book and some of its illustrators. I want to consider the challenges
of illustrating in the Willows Zone, and how the Willows, the most comfortingly
nostalgic of books, was actually shivering with premonitions of the modern
world.
The book was published in 1908, but it wasn’t until 1931 that EH Shepard illustrated it. To me EH Shepard’s
pictures are as much a part of Wind in the Willows as the text – so I was surprised
to discover they weren’t there at the beginning.
Grahame didn't live long enough to see the book released with
Shepard's illustrations, but their meeting would be reported by Shepard in a
1950s edition of the classic, as follows:
"Not sure about his new illustrator of his book, he listened
patiently while I told him what I hoped to do.
Then he said 'I love these little people, be kind to them'.
Just that; but sitting forward in his chair, resting upon the arms, his fine
handsome head turned aside, looking like some ancient Viking, warming, he told
me of the river nearby, of the meadows where mole broke ground that spring
morning, of the banks where Rat had his house, of the pool where Otter hid, and
of Wild Wood way up on the hill above the river.
 |
| EH Shepard |
...He would like, he said, to go with me to show me the river bank that he knew
so well, '...but now I cannot walk so far and you must find your way
alone'."
Grahame was living in Pangbourne near the Thames – and at
other times he lived in Cookham, also on the River Thames – so to me, the river
running through the book is always the Thames - which bubbles up in
Gloucestershire and flows through Oxford, Reading, Henley and Windsor and
eventually becomes the great river that snakes through London on its way to the
sea. Mole, on his escape from white-washing, is captivated by the river; it “chattered
on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from
the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”
 |
| EH Shepard |
The Wind in the Willows has
been rich ground for re-illustration. To me EH Shepard’s illustrations are part
of its fabric, like Tenniel’s illustrations for Alice, but still both books are
big enough to inspire reinvention.
And so far, in all the
versions I’ve seen, the animals are wearing clothes.
Animals
in Clothes
I have love-hate feelings about dressed-up animals. I really
don’t like animals that seem to have human bodies under their animal heads. But
if their body-shape seems to be the stumpy innocent sort of shape of an animal,
then it’s OK.
Some animals seem to need more dressing up than others. As a
child I used to adore these animal illustrations for the Woodland Happy
Families game by Racey Helps.
I love Mrs Frog’s expression as she gazes at her cheerily
waving tadpole. My sister Jo and I used to play long and involved imaginary games
with these cards as our avatars: – Jo was the glamorous Miss Rabbit and
I was the slightly homelier Miss Mouse.
I do admire how Racey Helps’s animals are truly animal under
their clothes – and have a look at Mrs Owl’s delicious pie. (Eeek. Don’t tell
Miss Mouse.) The Woodland Happy Families are sometimes fully dressed complete
with shoes, like Miss Fox, but other times just lightly accessorised, like Miss
Robin. Master Frog is as nature intended as he goes for a swim, but Mr Frog has
full sailor garb including little boots… (So how DO those flippers fit in?
Better to skim quickly over questions like this when considering
animal-dressing.)
With EH Shepard the main characters are completely suited and
booted. But the weasels and stoats just have the odd bag and hat – so it seems
the less civilised & well-behaved you are, the less you wear. But then
there’s practicality too: those swimmers Otter and his son Portly don’t wear clothes
either.
 |
| EH Shepard |
 |
| EH Shepard |
Here’s the battle of Toad Hall: Badger, Mole, Toad and Ratty
are all showing their claws and teeth like proper animals on the warpath. The
tiny weasels seem to have abandoned any pretence at civilisation and become
pure animal as they scuttle away in terror. There is a bit of animal stereotyping
in Wind in the Willows: weasels are actually brave, fierce and bonkers little
animals – but in Wind in the Willows, as Ratty says: “well, you can't really
trust them, and that's the fact.” It could be that the uprising of the
less-well-dressed animal underclasses foreshadows the social upheaval of the
First World War, and the unwinding of the Edwardian age of servants and huge
hampers.
 |
| Inga Moore |
Here’s the same
scene pictured by Inga Moore. Again, the weasels are just minimally accessoried
and you can imagine the blood-curdling war-growls coming from Badger.
Here they are
getting weaponed up for the battle.
 |
| EH Shepard |
I love Mole's hunched and determined posture.
Here’s Shepard’s Mole again doing a leap, with its stumpy
rounded shape, true to animal form.
 |
| Inga Moore |
Here is Inga Moore’s Mole strolling through
a glorious landscape.
The Wind in the Willows was the last book Arthur Rackham
illustrated.
 |
| Arthur Rackham |
Here’s his
Ratty loading up the boat with that all-important luncheon basket. To me Rackham’s
animals seem more human in form than Shepard’s, with longer limbs and more
human knees and elbows.
 |
| EH Shepard |
Here’s the same scene from EH Shepard.
 |
| Robert Ingpen |
 |
| Robert Ingpen |
Some glowingly depicted scenes
by Robert Ingpen.
But let’s return to the luncheon basket.
The
Luncheon Basket
 |
| EH Shepard |
Here are Shepard’s Ratty and
Mole stretching out after their picnic.
 |
| Arthur Rackham |
And here are Rackham’s animals laying out their spread.
That luncheon basket!
“What’s inside it?” says Mole…
And that’s a slight problem to me, as I know that moles eat
mainly worms, grubs and insects, and water voles like Ratty eat vegetation
mostly. And I do believe in being true to zoology. But as an illustrator I
don’t think you can avoid drawing the beautiful meat-heavy pies described in
that Edwardian picnic. It just wouldn’t be doing the picnic justice if you did.
 |
| David Roberts |
|
But the copy of Wind in the Willows I treasure is this
version by David Roberts.
I love the carefully designed outfits: Mole’s velvety
moleskin suit, badger’s tweeds and cardigan, Ratty’s Edwardian sporting whites.
 |
| David Roberts |
The beautiful elegant Edwardian furniture, the audacious interiors…
 |
| David Roberts |
 |
| David Roberts |
and the pure
poetry, the light and space:
 |
| David Roberts |
a moonlit field of cow parsley,
 |
| David Roberts |
mole submerged in bubbles and green water,
 |
| David Roberts |
and this vista of willow weeping over.
But now let’s return to the very naughty Mr Toad.
 |
| EH Shepard |
My favourite depiction of Toad has to be EH Shepard’s:
irrepressible, unrepentant– a high-speed amphibian obsessed with the
automobile.
 |
| EH Shepard |
He is unsquashable, impetuous, possessed by an almost consumerist passion for the Motor Car.
 |
| EH Shepard |
The Car!
 |
| Rolls Royce Silver Ghost |
1907 saw the advent of the luxurious Rolls Royce Silver Ghost
– “Silent as a Ghost, Powerful as a Lion,
and Trustworthy as Time" – aristocratic motoring indeed.
 |
| Model T Ford |
But in 1908 Henry Ford brought out the Model T Ford, bringing
motoring to everybody – the coming of the car – and for the last 111 years our
cars have been the blind influence in charge of shaping our landscapes.
Toad is enraptured and enthralled by the Car - “The only way to travel – here today,
in next week tomorrow!”
 |
| EH Shepard |
So the Willows shows this brand new force for a changing pace
of life. And it’s torn between the urge to roam in dangerous places versus
being safely cuddled up at home with toasted teacakes.
The
Unbuilt Roads of Oxford Past
In the 1900s was the dawning of the Age of the Car, and by
the 1960s the needs of car-travel was taking a major role in shaping city
planning.
And in 1969 Oxford nearly had a superhighway built right
through it. The city was very congested, traffic went right through the centre
of it, so plans started to be hatched to make an inner relief road to speed up
car travel times. Various schemes were planned, culminating in a planned
motorway along the railway line and 4 lane west-east highway right through East
Oxford.
A visualisation of the road-to-be in 1969.
The same spot (I think!) as it is now.
I had a look at where this planned highway would have been.
It would have been just at the bottom of our garden.
A four lane swathe of tarmac cutting through, an impassable
barrier for humans and wildlife. I feel a shiver of horror for what could have
been.
Planning proposals for an inner relief road hung over Oxford
for almost 30 years. You can read more about the whole story here.
Luckily, in 1969, 50 years ago this year, Oxford Civic Society was formed to fight this brutal plan. They won the Battle of the Relief
Road, and the planning of Oxford’s roads didn’t go with the needs of the car,
but in Park & Rides and pedestrianisation.
Thank you, Oxford Civic Society!
However, Frankenstein’s monster-like, massive road-building
plans refuse to stay buried. There’s now the hulking zombie of the proposed Oxford-Cambridge
Expressway haunting the future.
Back to the Riverbank
I have recently finished being in the zone of Wind in the
Willows.
I was illustrating a story by the poet Roger McGough (who has
adapted Wind in the Willows for the stage.) The story is called Money Go Round, and is all about the
journey of a coin through the paws of all the animals who live along the
riverbank – and it starts with the naughty amphibian, Mr Toad.
Our mole is female and runs a hotel,
 |
| Lavender Mole |
|
and there’s a painter-decorator
stoat, a shack of weasels, and a magpie preening parlour.
 |
| A Weasel Shack |
Working out how much
to dress the animals was a dilemma I haven’t really had before. Here are
character sketches.
Most of all I wanted the river and the willows to flow
through the pictures. So, to finish, here’s my favourite character, Walter Rat,
in his boat, the Bootle.
Money Go Round by Roger McGough and illustrated by Mini will be published in 2020 by Walker Books.
Mini's latest book is The Last Wolf.
Sketching Weakly is Mini's sketch-blog and you can find it here.
