What do you think?
Rate this book
The Wind in the Willows
A retelling of The Wind in the Willows with all female characters, adapted by Dina Gregory. Includes songs and other new material.
Audible Audio
Published January 1, 2020
13 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
January 11, 2021
A fun and entertaining "retelling" of the childrens classic 'The Wind in the Willows' where all the main characters are female. I liked it. But I think it's wrong to call it a retelling when the stories were not the least bit dissimilar to what the original author wrote, and to weigh in on the discussion about the gender switch... If you want to gender flip a story, sure. Go ahead. But at least re-write it. Don't just switch the gender of the characters for the sake of equality. Re-tell the actual story. Better yet, let other women write their own stories that may go on to be classics of their own.
July 9, 2025
A childhood favourite of mine and a most glorious story of companionship and human traits but portrayed by animals. This audiobook version doesn’t work….Just leave the classics alone... a perfect example of equality sticking its head in where it really shouldn’t belong. No, no, no!
January 14, 2022
I realised I'd never actually read this when I was a child, so when the free audio book was released I got it to while away some time while I did chores etc. It was wholesome and silly and I enjoyed the performances, especially Aimee Lou Wood and Jennifer Saunders.
January 4, 2021
I have a lot of conflicting opinions about this book, and wish to preface first and foremost, thatI tried to make my opinions objectively, being careful not to critique the politics, as many reviews before me have done. I want to start out by saying the production of this audiobook is by far and away, the best I've heard to date. There are plenty of sound effects and musical numbers to keep the reader/listener entertained throughout the novel. The story, just like the classic original is exceptional, and a timeless classic that will live throughout the ages. I like the thinking behind the novel, and why an all-female cast has been given, and the influence this could potentially have on younger generations who fail to associate themselves with the characters that they read in stories.
I want to disclaim first and foremost, that my negative opinions can only really be taken with a pinch of salt. As a male, I have never felt some of the prejudices that women today face, and thus my opinions are open to bias based on sex and privilege.
I do not feel like changing the characters sexes, from male to female, actually adds anything to the story. I don't particularly feel like the personalities of any of the characters have changed, and the novel seems to have remained pretty much the same. In my opinion, I think this is quite a lazy attempt.
It would have been so much more fulfilling for both the author, and the readers, if an entirely new, but equally entertaining all-female novel be written, leading the charge in tomorrows classics. It is clear why they have gone for a long-standing classic, as this is something that already has an audience, and is a story pretty much everyone is familiar with - but the promise of the idea has unfortunately not lived up to my own expectation. In all though, it was still a very entertaining read, and to re-iterate with my upmost sincerity - that the audio production of this book is faultless and by far the best I've listened to.
I want to disclaim first and foremost, that my negative opinions can only really be taken with a pinch of salt. As a male, I have never felt some of the prejudices that women today face, and thus my opinions are open to bias based on sex and privilege.
I do not feel like changing the characters sexes, from male to female, actually adds anything to the story. I don't particularly feel like the personalities of any of the characters have changed, and the novel seems to have remained pretty much the same. In my opinion, I think this is quite a lazy attempt.
It would have been so much more fulfilling for both the author, and the readers, if an entirely new, but equally entertaining all-female novel be written, leading the charge in tomorrows classics. It is clear why they have gone for a long-standing classic, as this is something that already has an audience, and is a story pretty much everyone is familiar with - but the promise of the idea has unfortunately not lived up to my own expectation. In all though, it was still a very entertaining read, and to re-iterate with my upmost sincerity - that the audio production of this book is faultless and by far the best I've listened to.
December 13, 2020
I haven't read Wind In The Willows in its fullness in a long time, so this take on a classic collection of tales was a welcome refresher as I became reacquainted with the characters - albeit in their necessarily altered versions. The story, by and large, is much the same as it's always been despite the woman-centred bias. And it *is* biased, with males only featuring as unfaithful spouses, authoritarian figures (by virtue of their sex) and wily lotharios who would tempt a woman to destruction if not for the ever-present support and comfort of her female friends. I'm not crazy about the message all of this sends about men - it's a matter of personal taste- but I understand how these portrayals redress the negative slant of the original tale while it embraces the concepts of the depth and complexity of female friendship and sisterhood.
The narrators all delivered excellent performances, working with the material so well as to bring their characters to life - no mean feat when all the characters are animals - and I rate them highly for it.
The narrators all delivered excellent performances, working with the material so well as to bring their characters to life - no mean feat when all the characters are animals - and I rate them highly for it.
February 22, 2021
The original wasn't ever a book I cared very much for when I was younger and this re-telling did nothing to change my opinion; other than adding different pronouns to the characters, this adds nothing nor enhances the story, and I can't see why it was commissioned.
October 13, 2022
The book as written by Kenneth Grahame was always great.
This Audible version is well performed, however the gender swap is pointless and doesn't add anything to the story. I recommend sticking to the original.
This Audible version is well performed, however the gender swap is pointless and doesn't add anything to the story. I recommend sticking to the original.
December 22, 2020
This is the story we all know and love, but with a feminine touch. I really enjoyed the way each narrator got into their roles and found the way they interacted absolutely perfect
March 20, 2021
I love the original version of this book, and this is a really fun adaptation.
May 5, 2021
An interesting feminine take on a classic take. The narrators were great
August 30, 2021
I love this girl power adaptation! And it is amazingly performed!
December 18, 2020
Pointless adaptation of classic story for the woke brigade. Adds nothing and reduces a wonderful narrative to a children’s story. DO NOT INTRODUCE YOUR CHILDREN TO THIS VERSION. If you need a feminine led story write your own and don’t ruin a work adored by generations.
February 25, 2021
Didn't grab my interest at all.
January 17, 2021
This was a free gift from Audible, and when I downloaded it, I didn’t realise that it was a retelling with all the characters rewritten to be female – I thought it was the original book read by women, but no. I would have preferred Kenneth Grahame’s version, but this was okay. Not much was changed other than pronouns. The audio is done well, and I think children unfamiliar with the original would enjoy this just as much.
May 16, 2023
I definitely would God willing want to read this to my future children. It was a fun story with good morals and lessons about character, though it was a little weird at points!
January 5, 2021
Getting to the end of this audiobook was such a slog. It was so dull and I was really disinterested.
I haven’t ever read the original so I don’t know if it’s just this retelling I didn’t enjoy, or if I’d feel the same about the original.
I haven’t ever read the original so I don’t know if it’s just this retelling I didn’t enjoy, or if I’d feel the same about the original.
December 21, 2020
Plenty of charm and very well performed, but mostly I found this a bit dull. I didn't realise that this was an all-female retelling before I started, so as you can imagine, I was very confused.
I'm not sure I agree with trying to tackle the lack of female representation in children's literature from this period by rewriting it, but hey-ho.
I'm not sure I agree with trying to tackle the lack of female representation in children's literature from this period by rewriting it, but hey-ho.
January 18, 2021
I got this for free on Audible and tonight i should give it a go. I didn't really remember the Wind in the Willows from childhood and as such cant really comment on the differences I this version.
Whilst Toad's journey is the main thread this doesn't become apparent until about halfway through where it appears to be disconnected tales of 'adventure' which made it hard to follow when listening.
I really didn't like Toad who meanders around being pompous and terrible to all her friends and acquaintances, I think it's meant to be humorous but she's just cruel to people who are kind to her. And when retelling this all she is chided about is 'looking common'.
Whilst her character arc is finished about five minutes from the end it's more a sharp drop off of a cliff than an arc, and then the epilogue says it didn't take.
Reading the other reviews I understand I'm meant to be angry or supportive about gender swapping the characters, but other than four/ five mentions of not treating women differently or not being able to stand women crying it doesn't have an affect on the story and halfway through the adaptor stops bothering and leaves all the remaining side characters as Male. If youth like the original I can understand the prologue and epilogue where they complain about the original being bad as very grating.
The songs are unwelcome interpretations to the general narrative, it's obvious that Toad is odious and we don't need more of it.
To finish with the final line of the production. "By Golly that was painful."
Whilst Toad's journey is the main thread this doesn't become apparent until about halfway through where it appears to be disconnected tales of 'adventure' which made it hard to follow when listening.
I really didn't like Toad who meanders around being pompous and terrible to all her friends and acquaintances, I think it's meant to be humorous but she's just cruel to people who are kind to her. And when retelling this all she is chided about is 'looking common'.
Whilst her character arc is finished about five minutes from the end it's more a sharp drop off of a cliff than an arc, and then the epilogue says it didn't take.
Reading the other reviews I understand I'm meant to be angry or supportive about gender swapping the characters, but other than four/ five mentions of not treating women differently or not being able to stand women crying it doesn't have an affect on the story and halfway through the adaptor stops bothering and leaves all the remaining side characters as Male. If youth like the original I can understand the prologue and epilogue where they complain about the original being bad as very grating.
The songs are unwelcome interpretations to the general narrative, it's obvious that Toad is odious and we don't need more of it.
To finish with the final line of the production. "By Golly that was painful."
August 17, 2021
An entertaining adaptation of the classic turning all the male characters into females. I can't remember if the original was as insulting towards the invisible Mrs Mole but this version definitely looks down on the absent husband Mr Mole.
Apart from that this is made by Lady Toad voiced by Jennifer Saunders. She absolutely nails the character and steals every scene she's in. But kids and parents enjoyed this telling.
Apart from that this is made by Lady Toad voiced by Jennifer Saunders. She absolutely nails the character and steals every scene she's in. But kids and parents enjoyed this telling.
August 8, 2022
Did we need a retelling where all the characters are female? The characters have no real male or female characteristics anyway apart from pronouns
Their names aren't even masc or fem
Literally called rat and mole etc
Their names aren't even masc or fem
Literally called rat and mole etc
October 23, 2022
Thoroughly engrossing
Read
March 17, 2021The original of this is the only book I remember DNF'ing as an avid child reader. This remake turned out to be an exercise in how uncomfortable can a children's book make me feel. Audible offered this for free and I enjoyed the performances of the actors, as I expected I would. But there's a list of things that bothered me about this book inside me, and I'll try to get some of it out.
The address "old girl" (and it is not much better if it is "old chap" or "old" anything).
That it was animals more than toys having adventures in an anthropomorphized way.
That the animals were being treated both as animals and as persons in the same world. (Hits too close to home.)
That there are social norms that everyone knows to observe. (I mean, mostly because I don't feel like it's my society that the norms are of.)
That one of these norms is to not inquire about all of a sudden disappeared spouses. (To me it sounds like advice to not ask trauma survivors about their trauma. Good advice but it still makes me feel uncomfortable to get it in a book about animals having adventures.)
That Lady Toad was maybe mentally unwell (seeing as how she couldn't control herself around the motor car) but even with that stipulation, that her friends felt that it was appropriate to put her under house arrest just because they felt she was embarrassing them, not so much because they feared for her actual wellbeing.
That there was a gipsy who wanted to trade horses.
That the Lady Toad had hair.
That Lady Toad randomly changed personality at the end and it is unclear if that's a good thing, kind of seems like it is meant to be a good thing.
Basically I felt like this book dealt with far too heavy subjects in way too frivolous a manner. I have no clue how it compares to the original, I suspect it's mostly just the genders of the characters changed, but the fact that it's female animals doing these adventures and things... Well, I guess it improved it by a narrow margin, but it shouldn't be so.
The address "old girl" (and it is not much better if it is "old chap" or "old" anything).
That it was animals more than toys having adventures in an anthropomorphized way.
That the animals were being treated both as animals and as persons in the same world. (Hits too close to home.)
That there are social norms that everyone knows to observe. (I mean, mostly because I don't feel like it's my society that the norms are of.)
That one of these norms is to not inquire about all of a sudden disappeared spouses. (To me it sounds like advice to not ask trauma survivors about their trauma. Good advice but it still makes me feel uncomfortable to get it in a book about animals having adventures.)
That Lady Toad was maybe mentally unwell (seeing as how she couldn't control herself around the motor car) but even with that stipulation, that her friends felt that it was appropriate to put her under house arrest just because they felt she was embarrassing them, not so much because they feared for her actual wellbeing.
That there was a gipsy who wanted to trade horses.
That the Lady Toad had hair.
That Lady Toad randomly changed personality at the end and it is unclear if that's a good thing, kind of seems like it is meant to be a good thing.
Basically I felt like this book dealt with far too heavy subjects in way too frivolous a manner. I have no clue how it compares to the original, I suspect it's mostly just the genders of the characters changed, but the fact that it's female animals doing these adventures and things... Well, I guess it improved it by a narrow margin, but it shouldn't be so.
January 2, 2021
An entertaining re-telling of the Kenneth Grahame classic, parts of which I seem to know by heart from childhood audio cassettes.
The gender-flipped characters would have been especially enjoyed by my six year old self. As a younger I struggled to find tales about girls and women discovering new things, getting into sticky situations and getting one another out of a fix - so many of my childhood adventure-bound protagonists seemed to be boys.
This performance is made by the performers, Jennifer Saunders is a particularly excellent Lady Toad but mole, rat and badger are also very well-cast.
The gender swaps require a little light re-writing on the original but the spirit and jollity is preserved faithfully and I'd recommend this as a listen whether you're familiar with the Wind in the Willows or not.
The gender-flipped characters would have been especially enjoyed by my six year old self. As a younger I struggled to find tales about girls and women discovering new things, getting into sticky situations and getting one another out of a fix - so many of my childhood adventure-bound protagonists seemed to be boys.
This performance is made by the performers, Jennifer Saunders is a particularly excellent Lady Toad but mole, rat and badger are also very well-cast.
The gender swaps require a little light re-writing on the original but the spirit and jollity is preserved faithfully and I'd recommend this as a listen whether you're familiar with the Wind in the Willows or not.
December 2, 2023
Thoroughly disliked this.
🐀🦡🦦🐸
[Full disclosure - I have never read the original and after getting this as a free download, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to finally read it. I didn't even realise it was a revised version of the story, which doesn't bother me.]
I found the characters dull and unsympathetic. Lady Toad is the most unlikeable character I think I've ever encountered. She is rude and unkind to get apparent "friends" and lies to them regularly. I disliked how there was no consistent plot. One minute Rattie is considering moving away and the next minute we never speak of it again. The performances were fine but I had to listen at 1.30x speed to make it bearable/ to get it over with. I was determined to have no DNFs this year but if this had been any longer of a listen, I don't think I would have been able to get through it.
🐀🦡🦦🐸
[Full disclosure - I have never read the original and after getting this as a free download, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to finally read it. I didn't even realise it was a revised version of the story, which doesn't bother me.]
I found the characters dull and unsympathetic. Lady Toad is the most unlikeable character I think I've ever encountered. She is rude and unkind to get apparent "friends" and lies to them regularly. I disliked how there was no consistent plot. One minute Rattie is considering moving away and the next minute we never speak of it again. The performances were fine but I had to listen at 1.30x speed to make it bearable/ to get it over with. I was determined to have no DNFs this year but if this had been any longer of a listen, I don't think I would have been able to get through it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 22, 2020
I don’t think I had ever listened to The Wind in the Willows prior to picking this up, and the only reason I did was because it was a free book on Audible. From what I can tell, this is the exact same story as the original except the characters have been genderbent. I actually really enjoyed this; it was a fun and entertaining children’s adventure story, with strong and recognisable characters and an element of whimsy. I don’t think the character’s genders had much impact on the story (I say not having read the version where all characters were male rather than female) and from what I could tell, it wouldn’t have been any different had there been no genders used at all. I can see why The Wind in the Willows is such a well-loved classic that so many enjoy.
April 3, 2021
This is the first retelling of wind in the willows i have been able to finish through. I’ve tried to read the book many times since childhood but this audio reimagining had been good to listen along to while my daughter napped and I did housework etc. The short story chapters interwoven in the main story, while I did enjoy them, did take me away from the pace of the main narrative and did confuse where they fit during the time line as some are set in winter, some before winter so I was wondering if this narrative was told over a year or several but after I got past this point I did enjoy the story as a whole would recommend everyone read/ listens to at least one telling of this English classic but not sure if list it as one of the greats.
January 18, 2021
You probably need to read this story as a child to get emotional connection with it. I've never read it before and was bored despite great production and voice actors' work.
This audiobook is an adoption: with all characters re-written as female. For someone who didn't read the original book, the storyline worked well. The gender doesn't really matter for this story. However, if you go through the trouble of adopting the story, it might be worth creating a diverse crowd and not switching all characters from one gender to another.
This audiobook is an adoption: with all characters re-written as female. For someone who didn't read the original book, the storyline worked well. The gender doesn't really matter for this story. However, if you go through the trouble of adopting the story, it might be worth creating a diverse crowd and not switching all characters from one gender to another.
January 18, 2021
I so wanted to love this, and as the classic story I definitely do. It's still every bit as wholesome and wonderful as ever and the gender reversal does work and doesn't detract from the joy, however it doesn't really add anything either. In some cases a gender swap elevates the work and adds deeper meaning (the recent West-End revival of Company for instance) but that's sadly not the case here. But then, maybe I'm just not the audience here! If a young girl was to listen to this version and relate to the characters more due to their being female, I'd call that a job well done.
January 25, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed this female version of The Wind in the Willows. Having read this book numerous times in my childhood, the original and it's beloved characters will forever hold a soft spot in my heart. However, I did find this version wonderful and I feel it is a very good listen, particularly if you haven't previously experienced the tales from the riverbank. I don't particularly think the narrative was any better or worse than the original, but I did find the actresses portraying the characters to be immensely entertaining, specially Jennifer Saunders as Lady Toad! Poop poop!!
January 29, 2021
Audio. Loved this retelling of Wind In The Willows. Slightly reworked to be told from a female POV and performed in the main by a group of outstanding female actors, it was a joy to listen to.
Most people know the story so I have no intention of commenting on that, though the flip to Miss Rat, Miss Mole, Mistress Badger and Lady Toad did give a different dimension, well exploited by the cast. The humour was ever present, the menace of the woods just as real, the magic gently present throughout.
Well worth a listen.
Most people know the story so I have no intention of commenting on that, though the flip to Miss Rat, Miss Mole, Mistress Badger and Lady Toad did give a different dimension, well exploited by the cast. The humour was ever present, the menace of the woods just as real, the magic gently present throughout.
Well worth a listen.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews