Not to be confused with the famous cake baker, Rudyard Kipling was possibly the most popular writer in England during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. He is most well known for his stories, The Jungle Books, a two-part story which has been kept alive not only by it’s Disney animated remake, but the imagination behind the story, and the rapture it has created in audiences across the world and time.

 

Kipling was born to British parents in Bombay, India in 1865. His early life here in these lush, vibrant, vivid lands served for the inspiration behind many of his short stories, however Kipling was greatly afflicted by the contrast between India and traditional British lifestyle and values. It has been said that he formed complex issues of identity and national allegiance, both of which would become prominent features in his fiction.

 

Aged 5, he was moved back to England to be educated, where he suffered cruelty and neglect from his guardians. In his own autobiography, Kipling credited his talent for writing fiction to the lies he had to concoct to stay out of trouble under the watchful eye of Mrs Holloway, his housekeeper. However, he later found happiness at boarding school, which later became the setting for his schoolboy stories, Stalky & Co. (1899).

 

In the mid 1880’s he settled back in India, where life was more affordable, writing a number of short stories. He eventually made himself enough money to move back to London, where a few years later he suffered a nervous breakdown – perhaps due to ‘the Charing Cross trains rumbling through his dreams’; one of the more poetic ways he used to describe his time in London.

 

Eventually he married, and settled in the USA, where he began writing the Jungle Books, which were two separate stories. Here he was happy, living what he described as a “good, wholesome family life” and enjoyed corresponding with the many children who wrote to him about his books. However, Kipling became increasingly disheartened by what he felt was an anti-British sentiment in the US; he described it in a letter as “aimed at with a decanter across a friendly dinner table”.

The Kiplings returned to the UK after a particularly sour incident with Mrs Kiplings brother; he had been a violent alcoholic, and after a confrontation with Rudyard in the street, was subsequently arrested. The hearing caused a lot of controversy, and the publicity meant that the family’s privacy was destroyed, and they headed back to the UK.

Settling in Devon, Kipling’s writing took a more political stance and here he penned two controversial poems: “Recessional” (1897) and “The White Man’s Burden” (1899). The poems were regarded as propaganda for imperialism, and it’s associated racist tones. On the other hand, others saw the irony in the poems and warnings of the perils of empire. After this, Kipling moved to Sussex where he dabbled in non-fiction and more political writing. He lived here until he died in 1936.

Next week, we will look in more detail on the works of Rudyard Kipling, including these two poems and the well-loved Jungle Book itself.