Like the wind

Melbourne Forecast

Thursday - Showers, possible storm. Windy.
Severe weather warning for damaging winds.
Gale warning for Port Phillip.
Gale warning for Western Port.

Clearly it's time for a list of windy books:

1: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
A classic that makes the list on its title alone.

But, oh, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. '... as they slowly realised all they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze, dancing up from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the dewy roses and blew lightly and caressingly in their faces; and with its soft touch came instant oblivion... the gift of forgetfulness.' (Children of the 80s might also remember this wistful windy tune.)

2: We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome
Speaking of messing about in boats, these four kids accidentally drift out to the North Sea after the rising tide causes their cutter to drag anchor. High adventure on the high seas in a high wind sees them end up in Holland!
(And Susan and Titty are seasick and John almost goes overboard while reefing the mainsail and Roger... well, really, Roger just enjoys the whole thing.)

3: The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke

'The old house creaked in the cold and outside the window the big stars grew closer and closer, till they were like cold faces peering through the glass. And the winds of heaven sprang up and blew above the paddocks and rocked in the great space of the sky.'

... we have nothing further to add.
(Except let yourself be blown out the door and tumbled down to a bookshop or library so you can read this book immediately!)

4: The Children of the Wind (series) by Kirsty Murray
A sweeping Irish-Australian saga made up of Bridie's Fire, Becoming Billy Dare, A Prayer for Blue Delaney and The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong; four inter-linked novels, beginning in the 1850s and taking the reader on an epic journey right through to the present.
(Oh Bridie! Is there any place on earth more windswept than the coast of south-west Ireland during the potato famine?)

5. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle.
Onion confession: none of us actually know what this title means. But there are a lot of windy dark nights in the first book A Wrinkle In Time, and the whole Time Quartet is brilliant, so onto the list with it.

6: The Princess Bride by William Goldman*
Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, True Love, miracles.... You may ask how this fits into our windy genre? Easy, peasy.

*Yes - we know this is a tenuous link, but we like to leap on any excuse to turn our thoughts to the genius that is The Princess Bride. And no, we're not trying to trick you - this is not a kissing book.