Kenneth Grahame was born on 8 March 1859 and was orphaned by the time he was five years old. He went to live with his grandmother in Cookham Dene, Berkshire. He attended St. Edward's School there, and at the age of 17 began working as a clerk for the Bank of England. He stayed on, was promoted several times, eventually holding the position of Permanent Secretary. He married Elspeth Thomson in 1899. Grahame wrote essays which were published in the 'National Observer,' and many well-received sketches of childhood - some about orphaned siblings - for various publications. He was nostalgic, appreciative of nature, and sensitive to the lives of children; some of the stories which comprise The Wind in the Willows were originally written as letters, others were invented as bedtime stories - all in order to amuse his young son, who died in an accident in 1920. Grahame died in 1932.