Dies Irae: From their pens to your ears, genius in every story

At age 5 his mother succumbed to puerperal fever. His father, who had a drinking problem, now sent his 4 children to live with their grandmother at her large house in Cookham, Berkshire. Here the children lived in large open grounds next to the river. These early experiences would in later years, be retold in his writing through a myriad of characters.

Grahame loved being a pupil at St Edward's School, Oxford and wanted to enroll at the...