The Bookseller.com

20th November 2008

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Call for new Toad Hall tales

07.10.08 Graeme Neill

Fans of Ratty, Toad and Badger have been invited to write a sequel to The Wind in the Willows and reimagine the lives of Kenneth Grahame's characters in the 21st century.

The competition has been launched by the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, the UK's only permanent exhibition on The Wind in the Willows, and marks the centenary of the book's publication. The winner will received £500 and an assessment from fiction consultancy Real Writers.

Second and third place will also receive cash prizes. Entrants have been asked to reframe the classic tale into a short story of less than 4,000 words in a contemporary riverside setting, which reflects how the world has changed.

Paul Mainds, trustee and chief executive of the museum, said: "This competition gives authors the opportunity to re-animate these themes and make them more relevant or today's young readers, especially in light of the environmental issues that now effect our rivers and the wildlife that lives in and around them."

The three winners will be published on the museum's website and will be available online for 12 months. The competition closes in March 2009.

Graeme Neill