14 Sep Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1865, but he lived in England for most of his adult life. Today he’s probably best remembered for the short story The Man Who Would be King (1888), the poem Gunga Din (1890) and the novel Kim (1901). All were set in the Indian sub-continent and adapted as popular movies, as was another novel, Captains Courageous (1896). Kipling also wrote wonderful children’s stories, including The Jungle Book (1894) – filmed by Disney in 1967 and 2016 – and The Just So Stories (1902).
A literary tour of England should include Kipling’s final home, Bateman’s, a grand 17th Century house in the village of Burwash in Sussex (about 50 miles southwest of London). Kipling bought the property in 1902, following the success of Kim, and lived there until his death in 1936. Now owned and managed by the National Trust, Bateman’s – this “good and peaceable place” – remains much as Kipling left it. He is buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.