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

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

Not the original story

Yeah there’s a reason why this one is included with your prime membership. It’s the story of Lady Toad… Not the story of Mr. Toad. Why they decided to change all the characters to female, I have no idea. It’s disrespectful to the author, who, if he had wanted to make all the characters female, would have written them thus.

Dina, why did you do that?!

Don't mess with the classics, Dina Gregory.
The all-female version of The Wind of the Willows is a flop. The work lost its rhythm and charm. Don't waste your time listening to this.

They changed the genders of the characters

This story, in the book I have in my hands, has the main characters as males, but the audio recording has changed the genders and thus much of the story is being simply changed and made-up. Why would anyone do this?

Well read but misread missing the point of the satire.

All characters have been changed well read but the original text points fun at the male characters that represent contextual male stereotypes. By changing the genders to female the reader misses the point of the satire.

So much lost.

There is an incredible amount of content, story line and inferences lost while attempting to change the genders of the main characters. It just is not the same story, which I suppose is kind of the point, but take my advice and stick to the original. I just can't see why this version was needed.

OMG! I'm in LOVE!!

IMHO, this version is better than the original. The characters are vivid and lovable (even Lady Toad, lol!), and the narration is SUPERB. I laughed, cried, and just lost myself in this story. I will recommend it to the high heavens and listen more than once. I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks on Audible, and this is in my #1 spot right now. Yes, it's THAT GOOD! Kudos ladies, and more please!

Great listen

What a fun, new twist on an old classic! My children and I enjoyed this during during Christmas school break.

A new take on an old story.

My family enjoys this retelling so much! Don't expect it to be the original, relax and enjoy a new story. And, if your going to come at it with a defensive attitude and consider it an affront to manhood, just stay away and let the open minded listeners enjoy the fun.

Surprisingly Delightful

Surprisingly delightful! Have never read this classic so I decided to give it a try.
At first I was disappointed to realize all the characters had been changed to female. But honestly, it made the story so cute and fresh. I absolutely loved the readers who brought this beloved classic to life. The multiple charming British voices truly captured the characters which Grahame has written to be complex and delightful. Such rich vocabulary and expression. Good for language development/writing for children.

Um. Ok.

I was, admittedly, disappointed, because o have never read the original story and was excited to find it for free! But then… it wasn’t the original story.

However, the acting is charming and voices are pleasant. At this point, I still haven’t read the original and si have no point of comparison, but this story is adorable. Listened with my 6yo girl who rather emphatically told me that the girl story was very much better. (She’s only watched the movie.) Sí i guess there’s that, as well.

I don’t give it very high marks, for toying with a classic and using the same name. I’ve seen too many classics ruined because of this unfortunate practice. (I’m looking at you, Cheaper by the Dozen movie.)

Why Bother?

Before I garner the usual criticism of being a misogynist dinosaur: I'm not. I do however resent the rewriting of other peoples work - especially long established works - to make them more acceptable to particular audiences. I recall with horror reprints of Biggles Books in the noughties where the WW1 squadron pilots were competing for bottles of lemonade rather than bottles of wine, because - I kid you not - it was deemed unacceptable to present children with adult pilots in a War Zone drinking alcohol.

This book is a well loved children's Classic for what it is. It is a book of its time, as all books are. Wishfully rewriting every book published throughout history to reflect particular views of more enlightened times is a pointless exercise in over the top Political Correctness. The time and effort would be better spent writing something original and new instead.

The fact that many people love The Wind in the Willows regardless of its Edwardian World View speaks volumes for the original and the author. And lets not forget that there are elements of Graeme's own life and sadness woven into the original narrative.

This awful rewrite ignores all that and substitutes a gender political world view of the 21st Century: but of course, its now a skewed and politicised version of the original work.

A much better approach would have been writing an original work that was both entertaining and reflected modern views and attitudes: an author doing this might create a children's classic of tomorrow. Please don't wreck any more of the well loved ones we've already got.

Note the 'Story' 5 stars are for the original story, the general thrust of which remains the same.

You can't give it away!

This was a free gift from audible. In my excitement I accepted the gift before I noticed the ominous word, 're-telling.' Then I discovered this was simply woke revisionism, where everyone is reduced to one aspect of their identity, and forced to obsess over it. No thanks. I don't want your progressive identitarian nonsense. This is to be permanently deleted from my account.

Charmless

A charmless, arrogant and fashionable attempt to recontextualise a timeless classic. The high production values only serve to underline the fact that 'style over content' is the only strength in this unnecessarily patronising rewrite, a strength which is ultimately redundant.

No Magic

I just felt terribly disappointed with the lack of a magical feeling in this telling of the story

Terrible...

My wife and I thoroughly enjoy the original stories...but this is pure tripe!

The PC brigade comes to Audible.....avoid

Just Horrible

For some reason I see my last review was taken down..
Suffice to say, even free is too expensive for this clumsily shoehorned, politically instigated drivel.
Do yourself a favour and listen to the charming original, rather than encourage the destruction of yet another classic piece of British literature in the name of virtue signalling wokeness.

But why?

Yet another lazy, 'gender change for no real reason' , woke, nonsense... No thank you.

Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!

Awful! Awful! Awful! I suppose that it was free but that is small comfort.

A classic ruined by the woke culture.

Why on earth does this classic need to be redone and making it all female?! Why does everything have to have an all female version these days.

It takes away from the original charm and fun completely. Avoid, glad I didn’t pay for this rubbish!

Enjoyable if baffling

I don’t really understand the need to change the gender of the characters while keeping the story pretty much the same. To be honest the only reason I listened to this book was because it was free. The performances are good, and I never tire of hearing Jennifer Saunders’s voice. But let’s not come out with any more “feminist approved” versions of classics again?