Just So Stories

Description

'These stories have the ageless resonance of myth, for beneath his addictive adventures and hypnotic prose, Kipling was grappling with big questions- who are we? Where do we come from? How should we live?' Daily Telegraph 'They sing in my head even now... What a wonderful storyteller/poet he was' Michael Morpurgo, Guardian Have you ever wondered how the leopard got his spots? Or how the camel got his hump? Rudyard Kipling's witty and beautifully written stories explain these secrets and many more and introduce such memorable characters as the Elephant's Child, the Cat that Walked by Himself and the Butterfly that Stamped. 'Quite irresistible' The Times WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PHILIP PULLMAN

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay in India on 30 December 1865. He was sent back to England when he was seven years old but returned to India in 1882 to work as the assistant editor of the Civil & Military Gazette in Lahore. He published poetry and stories in newspapers but it was the publication of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888 that brought him his first major success. His most famous works are Barrack-room Ballads (1892), The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and Just So Stories (1902). The Just So Stories were written for his children and are addressed to his six-year-old daughter Josephine, his 'best beloved', who died of pneumonia in 1899. Rudyard Kipling died on 18 January 1936.

Today's children would do well to abandon their computers and iPods for an hour or two and read him -- Griff Rhys Jones * Daily Mail * Weird and wonderful * Daily Telegraph * Kipling was one of the greatest wordsmiths of the English language and these fables are told in a simple and irresistible manner. They're timeless -- Martin Bell * Daily Express * The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling have always held a fascination for me, and doubtless sparked off my love of India -- H.M The Prince of Wales Kipling is a writer for our times, and for all time -- Roger Moore * The Times *