Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. His most famous works include The Jungle Book, the Just So Stories and Kim .
“Interestingly, although Kipling is seen by many now as an arch-imperialist (and he was, in some ways), his sympathies for India and Indian people are very real. A lot of Indians, long after independence, still regard Kim as a truly great book about their country.” Stephen Evans discussing book on Victorian adventures.
Books by Rudyard Kipling
“I love these stories and the way Kipling addresses the reader as ‘Best Beloved.’ It’s so charming. His pen and ink work is superb. The way he drew is quite beautiful. Really fantastic. The layout again is wonderful to look at. He has such simple backgrounds and then all this incredible detail.” Read more...
Korky Paul on Inspiring Illustrations
Korky Paul, Cartoonists & Illustrator
“Kim is the story of a young boy who falls in with a Tibetan lama and joins in with the lama’s search for his spiritual goal. I have always loved the book because of Kipling’s wonderful writing. I think it is Kipling’s greatest book. I also love it because the descriptions of India at that time are so vivid. Bear in mind what I said earlier about the way that the British were, on the whole, encouraged not to get too closely involved with India – encouraged to live separate lives. One of the great features of Kipling’s genius is the way that he did learn so much, and did get so involved in the life of India and Indians.” Read more...
Mark Tully, Foreign Correspondent
“Mowgli has great adventures: we have the Bandar-log, and Kaa the snake who at one point almost swallows up Mowgli’s later protector, Bagheera the panther. But there is nobody else…there is that terrible moment in The Jungle Books where he realises how the wolves in general hate him and he just stands there crying…because he has never understood that he was different. There’s a whole world there in that scene. I don’t even know if Kipling realised it when he was writing it, but it’s the utter breaking of innocence, because he thought he was part of them, that he was loved by them, that he was one of them, and then suddenly has to realise that he’s completely different and he’s not one of them.” Read more...
The best books on Childhood Innocence
Ann Widdecombe, Novelist
“I’ve picked the story of ‘The Elephant’s Child’. It’s pure nostalgia. It was the first book I was ever read and the first book I ever wanted to hear again and again and again simply because I just love the language of it. I love the music and the words and the way he writes, things like, ‘the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees’. I haven’t got a clue what any of it meant, but it didn’t matter. It was just a wonderful way of dropping richness into his language and it makes you smile and feel joyful to be alive.” Read more...
Michael Morpurgo recommends his Favourite Children’s Books
Michael Morpurgo, Children's Author
Interviews where books by Rudyard Kipling were recommended
Michael Morpurgo recommends his Favourite Children’s Books
The best-selling children’s author, Michael Morpurgo, says books for children need to do more than amuse their readers. He picks his own favourite books written for young people.
The best books on Childhood Innocence, recommended by Ann Widdecombe
Politician and novelist Ann Widdecombe recommends her favourite childhood books.
The best books on India, recommended by Mark Tully
The veteran journalist, who has lived in India for most of his life, talks about the country’s new-found self-confidence and recommends books to better understand its history and complexities
The best books on Victorian Adventures, recommended by Stephen Evans
High Commissioner to Bangladesh chooses books on the defining moments of 19th-century Britain and describes the game of exploration & espionage played out by Britain and Russia in the 19th century
Korky Paul on Inspiring Illustrations
Korky Paul, the illustrator of the hugely popular Winnie the Witch series (among others), talks to Five Books about the pictures and books that have most inspired him.
