Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh in 1859. When he was five, his mother died from complications of childbirth, and his father gave over care of Kenneth and his three siblings to their grandmother in Berkshire. They lived in a large, dilapidated house in idyllic surrounds, and were introduced to boating and the riverside by their uncle. Many people believe this informed the setting of The Wind in the Willows (1908).