Willows' author rarities on show

Kenneth Grahame wrote Wind in the Willows in 1908

Documents charting the non-literary life of The Wind in the Willows author are to go on show to mark the 100th anniversary of the book's publication.

Visitors to the Bank of England Museum will be able to see Kenneth Grahame's letter of resignation after 30 years work at the financial institution.

His riverbank tale of Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger was an instant hit when it was published on 8 October, 1908.

The Edinburgh-born author moved to Berkshire as a child.

It was there he developed a love of boating and the River Thames.

Gunshots fired

The exhibition, which opens in London on Wednesday, also includes other letters, notes and pictures relating to Grahame's career.

The Wind in the Willows was published four months after he left the bank - where he rose from clerk to the important role of secretary - blaming ill-health and mental pressures for his decision to leave.

In his resignation letter, written on 15 June, 1908, he said: "For some time past I have been forced to realise that the constant strain entailed upon me by a post of much responsibility...

"I feel strongly that even at heavy cost I ought to seek relief from the burden."

Other letters refer to a run-in with the bank's director and future governor Walter Cunliffe, the fact Grahame's pension was lower then he had expected, and an incident in 1903 when a gunman entered the bank and fired shots at Grahame.

John Keyworth, Bank of England museum curator, said: "Grahame's departure from the Bank is quite mysterious.

"His resignation letter goes to some lengths to describe his mental state, but this was not entirely confirmed by the bank's doctor and there is a suggestion that a separate ongoing dispute may have been the cause of Grahame's early departure."