THE WILLOWS AT CHRISTMAS by William Horwood 
Harper Collins - 1999
ISBN 0-00-225604-5 - Hardcover

Reviewed by Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.com
Buy a UK Copy

A humorous fantasy and a sequel to classic novel.

Just after the events detailed in Kenneth Grahame’s original Wind in the Willows Mole is looking forward to spending Christmas with his new friends.  He is horrified and upset to learn that nobody looks forward to the festive season – in fact they are all dreading it!  He is determined to get to the bottom of the problem and when he finds out what it is to solve it forthwith.  But this is not going to be easy – he has the formidable Mrs Fleshe to stand up to as well as the stoats and ferrets of the Wild Wood and the entire majesty of the law.

Horwood has done it again – crafted a fourth sequel to a classic novel and come up with a winner.  The characters are spot-on and their predicaments highly amusing as we learn of the devastation wrought by a number of calamities in the village and as usual the preoccupation of those in charge with crime and punishment.  Together with the illustrations of Patrick Benson – some of them in the form of colored plates – you have a real treat.  One for the keeper shelf.

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