Rudyard Kipling

A collection of Rudyard Kipling's articles describing Sikh soldiers' experiences of the First World War. Published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Rudyard Kipling's birth.

One of Rudyard Kipling's best short stories, "The Man Who Would Be King" has a fabulous enough plot to captivate even the most avid movie-goer. Told from the point of a view of a narrator who sounds suspiciously like the author himself, "King" is an exciting tale about two adventurers - or con men, depending on your kindness - who have hatched a plan to seek their fortune in Afghanistan, where they will set themselves up as kings. Just as Kipling provided an intimate window into Imperial India, his "King" blends fiction with the British perspective on an exotic and inestimable Middle East.

Samuel West reads ten of Rudyard Kipling’s famous tales, as broadcast on BBC Radio 4. How the Whale Got His ThroatHow the Leopard Got His SpotsThe Beginning of the ArmadillosHow the Rhinoceros Got His SkinThe Cat That Walked By HimselfHow the Camel Got His HumpThe Crab That Played With The SeaThe Sing-Song of Old Man KangarooThe Butterfly That StampedThe Elephant’s ChildFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as part of Just So Science, these charming tales are sure to delight listeners of all ages.

Since 1913 Magdalene College, Cambridge, has elected a succession of outstanding figures in literature and the arts to honorary fellowships of the college. On the occasion of his election in 1932, Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) presented the college with a manuscript poem entitled 'To the Companion' which celebrated Magdalene's best-known graduate, Samuel Pepys. After his death, his widow, Caroline Kipling, bequeathed the present collection of manuscript poems - many of them redrafted and corrected, and thus giving insights into Kipling's creative process - to the college. The bound volume comprises some twenty-eight poems in all (including multiple versions of key stanzas of 'The White Man's Burden'), together with a fragment of an unpublished poem entitled 'The Song of the Engine'. Its publication in the Cambridge Library Collection makes the poems available to the scholar, the Kipling enthusiast, and the general reader.

Danny Deever "What are the bugles blowin' for?" said Files-on-Parade. "To turn you out, to turn you out", the Colour-Sergeant said. "What makes you look so white, so white?" said Files-on-Parade. "I'm dreadin' what I've got to watch", the Colour-Sergeant said. For they're hangin' Danny Deever, you can hear the Dead March play, The regiment's in 'ollow square-they're hangin' him to-day; They've taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away, An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'. "What makes the rear-rank breathe so 'ard?" said Files-on-Parade. "It's bitter cold, it's bitter cold", the Colour-Sergeant said. "What makes that front-rank man fall down?" said Files-on-Parade. "A touch o' sun, a touch o' sun", the Colour-Sergeant said. They are hangin' Danny Deever, they are marchin' of 'im round, They 'ave 'alted Danny Deever by 'is coffin on the ground; An' 'e'll swing in 'arf a minute for a sneakin' shootin' hound- O they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'