News round-up including: “Wind in the Willows” is a ‘gay manifesto’ says professor

How about Noddy and Big Ears, Morecambe and Wise, eh ? Georgina who thought she was really a boy (but nonetheless had to share a tent with Ann).

I would be much more worried about chapter 7 of the Wind in the Willows, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”.
“…saw the rippling muscles on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on the sward……. Then the two animals, crouching on the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.”
It’s very difficult to read this chapter to small children, and I suspect that most parents don’t.

Is it possible that Kenneth Grahame had some connection with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ? He was a respectable employee of the Bank of England, but many other authors were members.

The first edition of The Wind in the Willows had an almost lurid gilded embossed illustration on its cover of this somewhat demonic apparition which Mole and Rat worshipped.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/376472850077506433/
Quite recently, a bookseller was brutally murdered by someone anxious to obtain a copy.

The professor highlights lines such as a bit about Mole and Ratty “tumbling between the sheets in great joy and contentment.”
Well, actually, this happened in Mr Badger’s cluttered spare room after Mole and Ratty had been lost in the snow (chapter 4).
“…..the two little white beds on the remainder of the floor looked soft and inviting ….. and the Mole and the Water Rat …. tumbled in between the sheets in great joy and contentment.” .
So Mr Badger could only provide them with single beds in a double room, not two single rooms. but there is no indication of any impropriety. They were very tired, and woke up late the next morning.