Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936) was a hugely popular poet and writer who many felt typified the late Victorian age and its self-confident Empire. But, as this collection shows, there was far more to him than patriotism. Ranging from the tenderness of Mandalay ('Where the dawn comes up like thunder...') to the satire of ‘The Betrothed’ ('A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke'), from the vigour and compassion of Boots to the warmth and humanity of If, these poems show the depth and variety of Kipling's poetry, in readings that bring it vividly to life.
