This tremendous tale brings to an end William Horwood's compelling trilogy. The three stories have made other attempts to provide sequels to Grahame's immortal classic look like weak parodies that should be treated as lightweight chaff that can be swept away by a fast flowing river. As with the other two books, this one is brilliantly illustrated by Patrick Benson who 2 years before this book, illustrated a version of the original classic which had an introduction by Horwood and was a perfect match in size and style to the trilogy by Horwood.
As always there are 12 chapters and the endpapers by Benson play a vital and unfolding part in the trilogy. The final chapter entitled 'Return to Mole End' relates to the reader how Mole, Ratty, Badger, Otter and Toad hand over to the next generation such as Portly. It is incredibly moving and it completes the saga which began almost exactly 100 years ago with Mole spring-cleaning and continued at the start of this tale with the loyal companions approaching the autumn of their lives. This is a book that will stay in the memory and any spoilers would ruin a narrative journey that should be explored alone, or in company, but definitely not tainted by knowing where the journey leads and who one is to meet on the way.
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