Kenneth Grahame had terrifying nightmares about lying helpless while his house was ransacked. The idea of home held a deep emotional charge for the author of The Wind in the Willows (1908) and that same impulse thrums through Piers Torday’s appealing update.
As suggested by the full clunky title (The Wind in the Willows Wilton’s), Torday tugs the story from Grahame’s idyllic Berkshire stretch of the Thames down to roister-doister contemporary London. Unscrupulous property developer weasels are snaffling the desirable riverbank, abetted by ferret lawyers. Forced above ground when his cosy burrow is threatened, Mole (an endearing Corey Montague Sholay in plush black coat and fingerless mittens) allies with Ratty, Badger and erratic Toad, defending not only his home but the entire precious riverbank.
