Kim

Description

'Rudyard Kipling's masterpiece, and it's one of the dozen books I should most like to have written myself' Geoffrey Moorhouse 'No summary can do this marvellous, rich and unforgettable novel anything like justice' Philip Pullman Kim is an orphan who earns his living begging on the streets of Lahore. One day he befriends an aged Tibetan Lama who, although content to live simply in India, is a rich and powerful abbot in his own country. When the Lama recruits Kim as a disciple and then funds his education at an English public school an adventure begins that will take the unlikely pair to the Himalayas on a thrilling journey of espionage and enlightenment. 'The greatest of all Kipling's books' E. M. Forster

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.

No summary can do this marvellous, rich and unforgettable novel anything like justice -- Philip Pullman The greatest of all Kipling's books -- E. M. Forster I'm a passionate fan of Kipling. I think Kim is a singular and extraordinary novel, one of the greatest in English -- A. A. Gill I don't just admire, I adore Kim -- Mark Tully The great adventure of identity, intrigue and India, and several other things too, including the extraordinary potency of words * Guardian *