The Willows in Winter

Finished The Willows in Winter by William Horwood. It's a sequel to The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. The characters are just as one remembers them. I really did not have a sense of reading someone else's interpretation of them. The only major difference is that more time is spent in the world of humans, mostly by Toad.

Now Toad is okay when he's hello-you-fellows-ing and getting into his scrapes on the home front. However, when Toad goes into "Beyond" and carries on, I lose all patience. He's such a pain in the ass. While Badger, Ratty and Mole have had no shortage of interventions with Toad, they really ought to go one step further and check him into some ritzy recovery clinic. Hell, Toad can certainly afford it.

Horwood has written a total of four Willows sequels. The title of the next one is Toad Triumphant (I cringe). I'll probably read them all though, at some point.