Rudyard Kipling Book

Rudyard Kipling continues to divide critics. On the one hand he remains (according to Daniel Karlin's Oxford Authors edition of his short stories and poems) one of the three finest short-story writers in English and a poet of genius. On the other hand he was an imperial apologist tinged with racism and militarism. Photographs in Andrew Lycett's excellent new biography show just how much he looked like Alf Garnett in later life, with opinions to match. Lycett manages to present both these sides of this flawed individual without giving way to facile judgement: his Kipling is a man, rather than a cypher. Lycett takes us step-by-step through Kipling's life, commenting unpretentiously on the writing as he goes, which is exactly what is wanted in a biography. There are occasional rhetorical flourishes, particularly at the beginning of chapters (for instance, the first sentence: "Rudyard Kipling kicked and shoved his way into the world. That would have been typical. Or else, he wilfully held himself back from life"). But, in general, Lycett avoids novelistic tricks and instead writes clearly and solidly. The strongest chapters are towards the end, with an appalled Kipling faced with the death of his much loved son in World War I (he "died in agony, with half his head shot away"). But, all the way through this biography there is a sure-handed, mellow expertise evident. --Adam RobertsRead More