According to the Chinese calendar we are now in The Year of the Rat , but 2008 is also the year of Ratty. It is 100 years since the publication of Kenneth Grahame's classic, The Wind in The Willows.

Visit the permanent Wilnd in the Willows exhibition at the River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames The Museum is planning celebrations and events later in the year.

 Grahame was brought up in Cookham Dean, Berkshire where he lived with his grandmother on the banks of the River Thames. He also had close affiliations with Oxford and spent the rest of his life not far from Henley in Pangbourne.

The River and Rowing Museum

John Preston article in The Telegraph