Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger return once more in a new tale of the River Bank from the bestselling author of The Willows in Winter, Toad Triumphant and The Willows and Beyond.

The Tales of the Willows sequence – in which William Horwood returned to the idyllic setting of The Wind in the Willows and brought back Kenneth Grahame’s much-loved characters in three brand-new stories – has been a remarkable success story.

It began in 1993, with the Sunday Times bestseller The Willows in Winter, which immediately caught the imagination of the reading public and was made into a full-length animated film. The series continued with Toad Triumphant in 1995 and The Willows and Beyond in 1996.

Now, in The Willows at Christmas, William Horwood has created a compelling new tale that takes place after the events in The Wind in the Willows but before The Willows in Winter.

The twelve days of Christmas are fast approaching and Mole is planning to enjoy every one of them with his River Bank friends. So when the normally cheerful Mr Toad despairs at the arrival of Mrs Ffleshe, a quite impossibly rude house guest, Mole must do something about it.

But the plan he hatches with Ratty, Badger and Otter to rescue Toad goes horribly wrong. With the prospect of Christmas in gaol and a trial for capital offences soon to follow, Mole will have to work hard if he is to salvage something of the Christmas spirit for his friends…

‘Lovers of The Wind in the Willows will feel at home and will laugh a lot with sheer pleasure.’ The Times on The Willows in Winter

‘The old friends are just as they always were.’ Daily Telegraph on The Willows in Winter