Literature Network » Rudyard Kipling

Books: THE APOCALYPTIC BOUNDER The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling By David Gilmour JOHN MURRAY pounds 22.50; Kipling's attitude to Empire may embarrass us today, but, says Matthew Sweet, his contemporaries weren't that keen

Content courtesy of

From: The Independent - London
Date: 20020303
Author:Matthew Sweet

There's no gossip in David Gilmour's new life of Rudyard Kipling. It scorns domestic detail and personal anecdote. It's not the source to consult if you want to know about the schoolboy Kipling's secret cave for raising lettuces, or why Pluto, the family's pet toad, was housed in his mother's bedroom, or why his father was often clocked disappearing into the bathroom cradling a ripe mango. Go to other recent biographers - Harry Ricketts (1999), Andrew Lycett (1999) - or to The Hated Wife (2001), Adam Nicolson's little book on Carrie Kipling, if you've a taste for that kind of juice.

Instead, ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Rudyard Kipling

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.