TIDE TURNS FOR TOAD AS WRITERS TURN CLASSIC NOVEL UPSIDE DOWN
- Winners announced for Wind in the Willows short story competition -
- Authors re-frame Kenneth Grahame's classic for the 21st Century -

16 June 2009: There's not a toad, a rat or a badger to be seen in the winning entries to a competition launched by the River & Rowing Museum (www.rrm.co.uk) to write a short story inspired by Kenneth Grahame's classic book The Wind in the Willows.

Announced today (15 June) at a special prize giving ceremony at the Museum - the winning entries cover everything from the credit crunch to issues of global warming; teenage angst through to juvenile pranks, with something for everyone - from tots through to terrible teens!

Launched last October to celebrate the 100th birthday of Kenneth Grahame's famous novel, the competition invited writers to re-frame the story for the 21st century and attracted hundreds of exciting entries, presenting new and imaginative insights into this much-loved story and transporting it to a contemporary riverside setting.

The winning entries were chosen by a panel of award-winning children's writers led by Beverley Birch, Senior Commissioning Editor at Hodder Children's Books. All ten shortlisted entries are available to download FREE from www.rrm.co.uk - so bedtime stories need never be boring again!

And the winners are…

  • First Prize: Sarah Burnett, Edinburgh for Pike: How to survive predators, parents and other disasters - a contemporary tale of childhood exploration, sibling rivalry and daring discovery proving that a sense of imagination and adventure will conquer all - even the credit crunch!

  • Second Prize: Lydia Fulleylove, Isle of Wight for Rose Petal Mirage - a hypnotic and mysterious story of teenage love as two friends swim together in dangerous water with unknown consequences…

  • Third Prize: Tim Ellis, Essex for The Expedition - turning Toad Hall upside down, this quirky story for younger readers appoints the weasel as Lord of the Manor as they head upstream to discover why the water has stopped flowing and the river has run dry…

Sarah Burnett, first prizewinner said: "The challenge of this competition was to take the essence of this magical story and turn it into something even more relevant to a children's audience today. Children will always be inspired and captivated by the river and its promise of adventure. I wanted to mix this with the very real concerns of our time - adult issues that really impact upon our children. Many of the stories I loved as a child were about children who overcome fear or loneliness or a sense of being lost; I wanted to write something like those stories, but in the context of today."

Beverley Birch, Short Story Competition Judge and Senior Commissioning Editor at Hodder Children's Books: "What we liked about the winning entries was the way that they all captured, in very different ways, the spirit of the river and a sense of its magic as well as the essence of childhood, adventure and discovery. These are not stories about children, but for them - never underestimating their capacity for subtlety and irony."

Paul Mainds, Trustee and Chief Executive, River & Rowing Museum: "Congratulations to Sarah, Lydia and Tim. They have taken inspiration from this great treasure of children's fiction to create exciting, new and pertinent stories for today's young readers. They have turned Grahame's classic novel on its head to deal with a variety of contemporary issues, especially the environmental problems affecting our rivers and the wildlife surrounding them. It underlines the power of the river to inspire people in so many ways. Perhaps one of these stories will become a national classic in years to come."

The River & Rowing Museum is a national museum with a strong regional focus, attracting over 100,000 visitors a year. And at just £7 (£5 for children) for admission for a whole year - it's a complete bargain! The Museum houses the UK's only permanent exhibition dedicated to The Wind in the Willows as well as galleries exploring the ecological, environmental and leisure uses of the River Thames as well as the international sport of rowing - areas close to hearts of the characters in Wind in the Willows.

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Press information
Press releases and pictures for the events and activities can be downloaded from http://www.kallaway.co.uk/rrm.htm. For further information please contact:

Amanda Dellor
01491 415642
amanda.dellor@rrm.co.uk

Katie Jackson
020 7221 7883
katie.jackson@kallaway.co.uk



Notes to Editors

About the Authors:
Sarah Burnett was born in Dorset and spent many long summer holidays playing by the river Stour. She studied Japanese and Law at Cambridge, and worked as a financial journalist in London, before moving to Brussels and then Edinburgh. She's written many types of publication, from guidebooks to websites, on subjects from shortbread to credit cards, but 'Pike' is her first attempt at a children's story, She now juggles copywriting and editing, with - in no particular order - family, hens, dog, piano practice and running.

Lydia Fulleylove is currently completing an Arts Council funded cross arts project, Wild Places, at HMP Albany, Isle of Wight, where she has worked as writer in residence from 2004. She has published poems and stories in magazines and anthologies and has received a Writer's Award from ACE to work on a first poetry collection. Lydia has also published creative writing/literacy materials for young people for the Isle of Wight Education Directorate and for Nelson Thornes. While working on a creative writing degree, she became especially interested in writing for young people and in radio drama.

Tim Ellis was born in London and grew up in Manchester. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps at eighteen and completed twenty-two years service, leaving in 1993 having achieved the rank of Warrant Officer Class One (Regimental Sergeant Major). Since then he has worked in higher education as an associate lecturer/tutor and consultant, and secondary education as a senior manager. He currently works as Head of Behavioural Sciences in a secondary school. He has a PhD and an MBA in Educational Management from Lincoln University and an MA in Education from Anglia Ruskin University. He lives in Essex with his wife and five Shitzus. His main interests are reading and writing fiction.

Prizes
First prize: £500 and a Real Writers (www.real-writers.com) appraisal
Second prize: £200
Third Prize: £50

Judges:
The judging panel is made up of award-winning writers for children and young adults - Beverley Birch (Rift), S.I. Martin (Jupiter Williams), Paul Bryers (Kobal from The Mysteries of the Septogram), and Sarah Mussi (The Door of No Return)

About Wind in the Willows:
Wind in the Willows was first published in 1908. It focuses on four anthropomorphized animal characters: Ratty, Mole, Mr. Toad and Mr. Badger and is set in a riverside setting on the River Thames. It is often seen as a commentary on class dynamics in British society with the four main characters representing the upper, middle and lower classes but also focuses heavily on the themes of the river. The mild mannered, water loving Ratty is still hugely popular and is the character to whom the famous phrase "There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats" is attributed.

Wind in the Willows at the River & Rowing Museum.
The River & Rowing Museum is home to the UK's only permanent exhibition on The Wind in the Willows. The exhibition recreates the timeless E H Shepard illustrations from Kenneth Grahame's famous novel - from Mole's home to the dangers of the Wild Wood!

Decline of the Water Vole:
The water vole is Britain's fastest declining mammal. 1990 levels recorded a national water vole population of just over seven million across the UK. By 1998 numbers had crashed to less than 1 million, a decline of almost 90 per cent in just seven years. Predation by American Mink and poor watercourse management have accelerated its decline. The Government has recognised its plight and from 6 April 2008 the water vole was given extra protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Further information: www.wildlifetrusts.org

Decline of the Toad:
An estimated 20 tones of toads are squashed crossing roads in the UK every year. In Kenneth Grahame's book, Toad is a reckless driver in his beloved motorcar - a rarity on roads 100 years ago. Today the car is considered one of the biggest killers of toads, helping plunge the warty amphibian into a steep population decline. Toads are very selective about where they reproduce. They often return to the ancestral pond that they emerged from themselves, which often means crossing busy roads. Half of Europe's frogs, toads and newts could be wiped out by 2050, according to the Zoological Society of London. Factors include climate change, habitat destruction and disease.
Source. Froglife: http://www.froglife.org

Badgers and TB:
Bovine TB is transmitted between cattle, amongst badgers and between cattle and badgers. But what has dominated debate is whether badger culling could be effective in controlling the disease. On 7 July 2008 Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs made a statement to Parliament that the Government's policy will be not to issue any licenses to farmers to cull badgers for TB control, while remaining open to the possibility of revisiting this policy under exceptional circumstances, or if new scientific evidence were to become available.
Source. DEFRA: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb/abouttb/badgers.htm

The Threat to Moles:
Earthworms are the most important component of the mole's diet; an 80g mole needs 50g of earthworms per day. Non-indigenous flatworms (the New Zealand and Australian) prey on earthworms and pose a potential threat to our native earthworm populations and consequently. In some areas they can even cause the local extinction of earthworms. The spread of non-indigenous flatworms could have an impact on wildlife species dependent on earthworms such as the mole. Sources: DEFRA: http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/pestnote/flat.htm
SNH: http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/advisorynotes/7/7.htm
The Mammal Society: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mammal/mole.shtml

The River & Rowing Museum (www.rrm.co.uk)
The River & Rowing Museum is one of the UK's leading regional and sporting museums, attracting over 100,000 visitors a year. The Museum, an independent charity, also has a purpose built education centre visited by over 20,000 children and adults a year.

The Museum provides superb value for money. Tickets start at £7.00 for adults and £5.00 for children, and provide free access for one year.

The Museum celebrates four themes explored through a wide variety of exhibitions and events across four galleries and special exhibitions:

  • The past, present and future of the River Thames
  • The historic riverside community of Henley on Thames
  • The international sport of rowing
  • The Wind in the Willows

Since opening in August 1998 the Museum has received numerous awards including the National Heritage/NPI Museum of the Year award and the Sandford Award For Heritage Education.

Location, opening and ticket information
The River & Rowing Museum (www.rrm.co.uk), Mill Meadows, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 1BF. Tel. 01491 415600.

  • The museum, terrace café and shop are open every day from 10am - 5.30pm in summer and 10am - 5pm in the winter
  • Tickets give FREE admission for a whole year!
  • Admission is just £7.00 for adults, £5.00 for children aged four and over, FREE for children aged three and under and £5.00 for senior citizens and concessions
  • Free parking for visitors

The River & Rowing Museum is part of the Thames Valley Museums Group (TVMG) Family Friendly initiative - a scheme that brings together 29 museums across Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, to promote their popular appeal to the whole family.

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